


I Haven't Seen His Face Yet

by Rhinestonex



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Action, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Burn, mild whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:35:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 23,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28879584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhinestonex/pseuds/Rhinestonex
Summary: Din Djarin travels across the world as an executive protection agent (think a bodyguard for high profile and high risk clients)- often with his son, Grogu. As work picks up since the adoption, he hires a nanny who he knows will keep his son safe through all of it. Enter: Luke Skywalker.
Relationships: Boba Fett/Fennec Shand, Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa/Han Solo
Comments: 58
Kudos: 292





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> The main inspiration for this fic came from a dinluke discord server, specifically the modern dinluke AU chat. While I did come up with the majority of this on my own, I know that I did pull inspiration from those who were also on that server. If you would like to be credited specifically, just let me know and private message me on discord.
> 
> I hope y'all enjoy, it's been ages since I've written for pleasure. Short chapters and short paragraphs to keep it adhd/dyslexic friendly.

“I haven't seen his face yet,” Luke blurted out before taking a sip of his water.  
“Do you know what this sounds like?” Leia shouted as she hurled herself out of her chair and onto her pricey coffee table.  
“Yes, yes I do but it pays really well and I get dental and free travel and-”  
“You are babysitting for a man who refuses to tell you anything about himself, who put in the qualifications,” Leia shuffled around some papers before grasping a thick packet and flipping quickly to a dog-eared page, “‘okay with traveling internationally for multiple weeks with 24 hour notice, military background, and no criminal record preferably. PREFERABLY.”  
She let out a sigh before sitting on the floor, eye level with her brother. They both took a sip of their respective drinks and Leia let out a groan as she buried her head between her knees.  
“You have a lot of money,” Leia stated plainly. It was true and Luke knew it.  
“It’s not mine it’s dads, and I don’t want that-”  
“Yet you invested like half of it into stock? And then donated the rest?”  
“I just want to pay for college with my own money, I already did the whole college shtick without doing it on my own and you know how that turned out,”  
“Yeah, I know. I’m just worried, it seems too good to be true yet also like the sketchiest shit,” Leia tilted her head back up to look at Luke once again.  
“Okay, I’ll admit it’s really weird, but in the interview-”  
“Over the phone,”  
“Yes, on the phone, that’s besides the point-”  
“Who has these kinds of requirements yet conducts a phone interview?”  
“Mr. Djarin apparently,” The two scoffed and Luke took a quick sip of water before continuing, “But back to what I was saying: he seems to be really worried about his kid and I can’t blame him,”  
“I feel like you also said something about his voice…” Leia smirked at the sight of her brother blushing before letting out a giggle. “Something about it being… oh, oh what was it exactly?”  
“Dreamy as all hell. Like a bedroom voice but after a couple of ‘events’,” Luke responded immediately as he recalled that hush yet raspy voice over the phone. It took him for quite the loop when he first heard it; after the interview Luke rushed over to Leia’s house to fawn over him and give her an update about his new job. That’s why they were on the floor in her living room in the first place. Luke glanced at his phone and stood up, which caused Leia to leap up in suit. “Okay, my first day’s tomorrow, I’ll tell you how it goes and if I don’t call you after nine assume I was kidnapped.” Leia nodded and gave him a goodbye hug as they meandered over to the door.  
“Tell me if he’s hot!” Leia handed him his coat and even pointed at him square in the face just so she was clear.  
“I thought that was a given?” Luke smiled as he stepped out the door.


	2. Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke and Din meet face to face.

Din Djarin hadn’t worn jeans in well over a month, normally this wouldn’t bother a man of his taste, but because of that he had spent twice his monthly dry cleaning budget each month for well over six months now and that was enough to ruffle his feathers just a bit. It was for a good cause though, because Din Djarin had been working for high profile clients and his new child had gotten out of his shell enough to get either of them dirty enough in the first place. But still- twice his budget on dry cleaning.  
He was an “executive protection agent”, or as he described it: a more intense bodyguard with a bigger check, and therefore had to dress in suits every day that he worked. Din had been in this job position for over a decade now, and despite being old for private security, had garnered an honorable reputation along with an admirable list of previous clients. The past year had been especially good to him financially, and therefore the workload was especially large. 4 continents in the past 4 months and in total 8 hours of vacation time spent (mostly to find a babysitter for his child) resulted Din Djarin becoming more temperamental over the small things. Like not wearing a pair of jeans in over a month.  
Things were about to change for him though, he just hired a personal nanny to care for his son, so his commute to his sons daycare would be reduced to zero hours instead of the two hours both ways. There were closer daycares to his apartment, of course, but he did not want to jeopardize the safety of his child and the only daycare that met his requirements was an hour away. The nanny would be staying in his own house, or at Dins apartment in their spare room if Din was away on travel, and seemed quite pleasant over the phone. Well, one could say that he sounded very pleasant over the phone, but that would be rude to think. Today he would be meeting the new reason he would be able to sleep in and spend more time at home, and he was a bit thrilled by that.  
It had been over a year since Din adopted his son, Grogu, and only in the past three months has Din felt like the two of them were both ready and comfortable enough for him to get Grogu a nanny. Din didn’t like talking about how he wound up adopting Grogu, nor did Grogu himself, so very few people knew the true story. The future nanny would not be one of those select few.  
Din was in the process of making breakfast for both him and Grogu when he received a text on his phone. The meal was French toast, fruit, and peas (Grogu’s vegetable of choice), but the text was from his current boss telling him to prepare for a motorcade and arrive in motorcycle gear- he would be on a motorcycle in a motorcade. Din let out a small sigh before dishing out breakfast.  
Din snuck into Grogus room and woke him up by gently shaking his shoulder. Grogu blinked a few times before letting out a yawn and reaching his arms out. He didn’t speak often, and that was okay, neither did Din. Din picked him up and carried him to their table in the kitchen and the two ate their breakfast quietly.  
“Today you’ll be meeting your new nanny,” Din croaked, speaking for the first time all morning. “his name is Luke Skywalker, okay?”  
“Luke” Grogu spell-signed with his little hands as he gave a nod. Din smiled back and the two completed their meals in silence.  
Din returned to his bedroom and began to put on his motorcycle gear. He wrote a full 5 page essay on Grogu’s habits that weren’t mentioned in the phone call yesterday, along with his contact information.  
It would be fine. His son would be fine. Grogu got along with everyone and this Luke guy was very kind over the phone. Ten minutes before Luke was expected to come over, Din got a call on his phone.  
His clients meeting was pushed up a few hours and he would be needed there in an hour. The drive there was 45 minutes. Din let out a curse word as he began to speed run his routine, hoping that his new nanny would be early. He wasn’t. He was right on time.  
Din had his helmet on along with all of his gear when Luke arrived, and Dins mental image of him was spot on. Well, he didn’t expect his eyes to be that blue. Or for his hair to seem so soft. Din stood in the threshold for a moment, taking him in as Luke did the same. It hadn’t crossed his mind how his nanny might have perceived him, a very shady man with a very demanding job request, showing up for the first time fully disguised. In his mind, the only one who was flabbergasted was him.  
“Uh, come in” Din said after a moment. Luke entered, thumb digging into his backpack full of children’s toys, books, and snacks with his prosthetic hand shoved in his front pocket. “I’m sorry about this, but I have to leave right now. My job got moved up a few hours,” Din darted over to his kitchen counter and back to his new nanny. “Here’s everything about Grogu that I didn’t mention over the phone. I’ll pay you 10% more for the extra time that you weren’t able to know about in advance. Tomorrow I should have time to sit down with you and the child so we can discuss this more. Is that okay?”  
Luke thought for a moment, just for a fraction of a moment, that Leia might have been right about not taking this job. Then he realized how much he would be paid for the day now.  
“Uh, sure,”  
“Great,” Din darted out the door, down the stairs, and outside to his motorcycle which he quickly mounted and drove away on.  
Luke stood there for a moment. Mr. Djarin was not lying about having a kid, nor about how short notice and flexible his schedule must be. But that is where the certain truth ended for him. He turned to Grogu, who was standing on the couch looking out the window to see his dad go off to work, and peered out with him. His father was quite a large man, both in height and size, and was clearly the man over the phone. He couldn’t forget his voice even if he tried. That was also where the certain truth ended for him. As Luke was almost done processing what just occurred, Grogu started clapping to get his attention and Luke spun his head over.  
“Luke” Grogu signed letter for letter, just as he practiced with his dad. Luke remembered what he was doing and let out a small sigh. The top priority was Grogu, not figuring out his boss.  
“Yes! I’m Luke, and you must be Grogu,” Luke replied, spelling out both of their names.  
“I’m Grogu,” Grogu signed with his name sign, which was “wide-eyed”, a name that both he and his uncle Boba came up with. “You?”  
“Just Luke,” once again spelling his name out. Luke learned ASL ages ago, but only out of interest rather than need. Luke glanced at the packet his boss left, and bold on top was “HE WILL EAT ANYTHING THAT ISN’T FOOD.” He looked back up and saw Grogu gnawing at the collar on his shirt, luckily Din was able to help Grogu with his morning routine before Luke came over so his teeth were brushed and was in day clothes. Luke sat his bag down and gently pulled Grogu’s shirt out of his mouth. Luke flipped around in the packet and then went over to the kitchen where he picked up a little knob off the counter and handed it Grogu. Grogu squealed and began to fiddle with it immediately. After watching Grogu for a bit, Luke felt compelled to ask, “Is Grogu your real name?”  
Grogu shook his head no, “It’s Geoff” Luke scrunched his nose in almost apalment over his name.  
“I like Grogu better” Luke spoke on reflex. Grogu nodded.


	3. Gala

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke grapples with his first day on the job and we learn a bit more about him.

Luke did not get to meet Din at the end of the day, instead he met a woman with red-threaded braids in all black. When Mr. Djarin found out that he would be working past nine, he called Luke and told him that his friend would meet him and stay there after Grogu went to bed until Din came back. Luke tried to convince him that it was okay, but his boss insisted that he wouldn’t make him work early and late on his first day, so Luke gave up on his failed attempt to meet this mystery man and drove home.  
“I didn’t get to see his face, Leia,” Luke whined over the call system in his car.  
“How?!- One moment,” there was a bit of shuffling on Leia’s end and hushed talking that escalated into yelling “sorry about that, apparently I’m not allowed to wander around a venue even when they don’t offer a quiet place to take a call!” She shouted at the end, as if the person who told her to leave was still there with her. “How have you not seen his face? Weren’t you two supposed to sit down and talk for a bit before you started?”  
“Yeah, but something came up and he was in this like armor? And his helmet had a black visor so I couldn’t even see his eyes, then he just ran out,”  
“You’ll see him tomorrow though?”  
“Mhm, I’m working for the rest of the week,”  
“Alright, the kid sounds nice at least. Thank god he’s at least real,”  
“He’s adorable! Looks a bit like my old professor though, like from the academy,”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah it’s kind of freaky,”  
“Alright I have to go, my meeting is starting soon and-“ The rest of the sentence seemed to be ripped out of Leia’s mouth.  
“-What?” Luke almost braked on the highway.  
“There’s. Well. There’s this security guard, who is….” Leia paused again, “very fine.”  
Luke let out a big sigh and laughed, “oh my god I thought you died or something,”  
“I would never, not on the phone at least. Alright, I’ll talk to you later, I got a boring speech to hear and an attractive man to look at,” On the other end Luke could hear the sound of Han retorting back at what she said, and a faint “not you” from Leia.  
“Tell Han I said hi!”  
“Okay, I gotta go now, love you,”  
“Love you too, bye.”  
Luke went back to playing his music and thinking about what happened that day. Grogu was a delight to have, and the two got along quite well, but every adult he met was unique. He tried to remember what the father looked like, his height, posture, anything really, but could only remember the gear he wore and his voice. As for the lady who kept watching Grogu, Luke was a bit surprised to see a character like her. Fennec was her name? Din gave a quick description of her, and she confirmed with Din that she was there, but she had such a threatening aura that he hadn’t been exposed to often after leaving the Air Force. It caused him to be on his toes.  
They might have been dating, there weren’t any photos of anyone except Grogu in the apartment, and Luke didn’t know a single fact about Din Djarin outside of what Grogu told him. Most of what Grogu said was about his dad and how great he was, either that or comments on what they saw or ate. As Luke got ready for bed, he couldn’t stop thinking about what Din Djarin could’ve been like. If he would go to parks or playgrounds with Grogu, what food he cooked, how he sounded late at night or early in the morning, if he had a girlfriend, if he liked men.  
Luke covered his face with his hands. He was his boss, he knew him for two days, and hadn’t even seen him. Luke was in no position to wonder his relationship status let alone his sexuality.  
Luke was scrolling through his phone in bed when he got a text from Leia. Apparently Han asked around and found out the name of the security detail she ogled, but wouldn’t tell her since she wouldn’t stop talking about him all night. Luke asked if she got any photos, she said no. Leia did mention that he wasn’t completely focused as his other coworkers, but made up for it in other, more visual, ways and when she passed by him he smelled amazing and always opened doors for anyone.  
Han never did tell Leia the name of the man, nor did he tell Luke. But his name was Din Djarin and he was head of security that night.


	4. Meetings pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Din and Luke meet again, with more time this go-around. We also meet R2-D2

Luke showed up early this time. He wasn’t called for the whole day, just the afternoon and night, but he was dead set on seeing his boss. As he was getting out of his car with his bag, the sound of metal grating on metal shot through the air and caused him to recoil on impact. When he found the source of the noise, Luke recoiled once more. It came from the most rusted, mismatched, and busted car he had ever seen. While there weren't any garbage bags over the windows, or duct tape nor bungee cords holding parts in place, it’s aura made it felt like it was worthy of them.  
Rounding the sidewalk some more, Luke saw a pair of brawny legs dawned in battered jeans poking out from under the carriage, then a torso covered by a black long sleeve shirt with the hem rising up just a bit. He didn’t say anything, but the sound of his boots on the pavement caused the man to fumble out from under the car. A welding shield covered in stickers was the first thing Luke noticed on the man, his strong build being the second. He wiped his greasy hand on his jeans and reached it out to Luke.  
“Sorry about yesterday. I took the day off today but I found out I need to take care of some things so thank you for coming here on short notice,”  
Luke stood there for a moment. Gears turning.  
The man was Luke’s employer, Din Djarin.  
While Din was questioning if it was odd for him to shake his nanny’s hand, Luke was regretting a few choice thoughts that he had made in the past three minutes. Luke took his hand and shook it, a bit glad that he did so with his real hand instead of his prosthetic. He had yet to tell Din about that.  
“No problem at all! Grogu was great last night, he had a bit of a difficulty with going to bed though, but when I told him that Fennec was coming over and that you were coming back he fell asleep pretty fast,” Luke saw Dins chest rise and fall as he sighed and let his eyes linger there for a moment. Din collected his soldering tools and opened up the driver door where Grogu was quietly playing “driver” and picked him up too. Grogu let out a little squeal when he was lifted up and waved at Luke. “Do you want me to carry anything for you?” Luke stared at the heap of various items slung over Dins shoulders and shoved in his arms.  
“No, thank you,” oddly enough as the two walked up to his apartment, Din did not struggle at all with his load. Grogu shuffled around in his arms to face Luke better and began to sign.  
“Can we play with the cat today?”  
“Yup! I brought R2 with me today and he’s fully charged,” Luke spoke.  
“R2?” Din asked as they slowly went up the stairs. Luke spun his bag around and rummaged in it for a moment until he pulled out a white Hasbro i-Cat with blue ears and a matching nose. As soon as he held it in his hands it let out a series of beeps that Grogu giggled at.  
“It’s one of those i-Dog things but a cat. I got it awhile back at a flea market and have been soft-hacking and altering it for awhile now, his name is R2-D2 but I call him R2,” The small cat moved it’s arms and sputtered around to face Din, “I try to not mess with the shell that much, but I did put wheels on him so he could move around,”  
Despite Din still wearing his face shield it was clear that the little robot made him uncomfortable, which struck Luke to be a bit odd, but didn’t think much of it. Grogu and R2 cooed back and forth, both having a ball. When they got to the apartment door, Din handed Luke his keys, and Luke opened the door for him.  
“Thank you,” Din shuffled through the threshold and gently grazed knees with Luke. Luke entered behind him and closed the door, getting attacked at the ankle by Grogu who Din had set down. Din took his welding shield off with his back to Luke, and began to put all of his things back where they belonged. As he did so, he began to speak in a relatively loud tone so Luke could hear, “I don’t know if you have any questions after yesterday, but if you do now would be a good time to ask,”  
“Uh yeah, so for meals do you want to plan them out and buy the ingredients, or do you want to give me a budget and I do the rest?” Luke tried to catch a glimpse of Din’s face, or even the entirety of the back of his head, but somehow the man was able to be at the right angle at the right time for that to not happen.  
“I’d like to plan the meals and depending on how much time I have I can buy the ingredients. Do you have a smartphone?” Din ducked into another room for a moment. What kind of question was that?  
“...yes, an iPhone X, why?” Luke sat R2 down next to Grogu and rubbed his head.  
“Get a VPN if you don’t have one already, and I’d prefer it if you turned your location off while you’re with the child,” Din entered the living room again, in fresh dark wash jeans and a tight, brown long sleeve shirt that had seen better days.  
“Why?” Luke said, it was a very odd request and with how things were going he wouldn’t agree unless the explanation was good.  
“I work in private security, although it’s rare people get kidnapped- even those who aren’t directly related to my clients. An incident happened a few months ago where a co-workers spouse got kidnapped because they knew where they would be from apps that had their location on,” Din walked back to the living room with his bike helmet on and most of his motorcycle gear zipped up already.  
Luke let out a scream in his head.  
“Alright, I’ll make sure of it. R2 doesn’t have any tracking elements on him so no need to worry about him,” Luke tried to play it cool that he yet again missed the chance to see Din’s face. Din looked at R2 and Grogu playing together, debating if having something like that in the house was worth the joy it brought his son.  
It was.  
“I’ll be out late tonight, but not past midnight. I may also be drunk. Is that okay?” Din zipped his jacket up and finished putting on his gloves.  
“Um, sure, I don’t know why it wouldn’t?”  
Din shrugged and walked out the door. Luke turned to Grogu and let out a very pained sigh. Grogu seemed to be dancing with R2, who was currently playing a chiptune song and twitching his ears to the beat- it was very cute.  
“What do you think about going to the park?” Luke asked, Grogu flapped his hands and nodded. “Alright, let’s get ready then.”


	5. Late Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tw: blood, injury  
> Enough said.

It was a feat in it’s own right that Din made it back home on his motorcycle that night. For the next two days he would be unable to bear the weight of Kevlar motorcycle gear and struggle to put on dress shoes.  
Grogu was asleep when Din came home, and as he said it was not midnight yet; it was 11:50 PM. Luke was sitting at the kitchen table running a diagnostics check on R2, seeing what needed to be fixed, when he heard the door unlock. Din walked in, hunched over with his gear and helmet on and immediately began to take off his jacket and shoes.  
“How was your night?” Luke offered, expecting that he had come back from a night out with friends or something of the sort.  
“Fine. Could you get me an ice pack in the freezer?” Din hobbled over to the bathroom. Luke grabbed an icepack and wrapped it up in a tea towel before heading over to the bathroom. The door was closed, so he knocked.  
It opened up a sliver so Din could grab the ice pack before closing the door once more; Luke managed to catch a glimpse of the bathroom and noticed the brown shirt Din wore earlier was now in the sink soaking in pinkish water next to some bloodied gauze.  
“Are you okay in there?” Luke pressed his ear up to the door and heard Din let out a soft groan. The sound of packages being ripped open responded first.  
“How was Grogu today?” Din sounded like he spoke through barred teeth.  
“We went to the park and followed all the rules you wrote down. He really liked the slides and played with some of the other kids there; for dinner he had chicken nuggets, fruit salad, and green beans. He insisted that I mixed the ketchup with hot sauce and when I did he said it wasn’t enough?” Luke could hear a chuckle through the hollow door and some rustling around.  
“I can only make spicy food. It took him weeks to be able to eat a full meal even if I didn’t make it. ‘Spent months trying to figure out how to cook for him.” Din recalled the first few months with his son. That time was hard for both of them, but even Din knew it was harder for Grogu.  
There was a moment of silence between the two, both unsure what to say yet wanting the conversation to continue.  
“Your check is in my motorcycle jacket in the left pocket,” Din finally broke the silence “thank you for watching him, and I know you don’t have any of your things here yet so you’re better off at home than-”  
“Are you okay?” Luke asked once more.  
Silence again. Din didn’t want to lie.  
“I’ll be fine. The check is folded but I don’t think that should be an issue.”  
“Do you need any help?”  
Shuffling from Din’s side of the door once more. Silence.  
“Thank you for the ice pack, Luke. I think I just need to take a hot shower,”  
“Do you need any help, Din,” Luke felt a small wave of regret. That paternal tone with his boss, using his first name for the first time he referred to him. They were both grown adults, yet it felt too casual. “Sorry, Mr. Djarin. I-” The sound of meat hitting the floor cut him off.  
Luke swung the door to the bathroom open to see Din’s back to him, standing up with the help of the countertop. The sink water was now bright red and it was difficult to make out the brown shirt in it. Bloody bandages and gauze covered the sink and droplets of blood made the tile and veneer seem polka dotted.  
“Get out,” Din didn’t need to raise his voice for his bitterness to bite through. Even with his back to Luke and him gripping the sink, he was making a warning.  
Luke left without grabbing his check and without caring that he didn’t see Din Djarins face. That night would be the first of many instances.


	6. Letters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sudden trip leaves Grogu and Luke alone.

Grogu woke up to Din. He stretched his arms out and was gently scooped up as he was carried into the kitchen. Today’s breakfast was green waffles, bacon, and applesauce- one of his favorites. Grogu ate quickly while his father was scribbling on a notepad. He had a black eye, but that wasn’t uncommon.   
“I need to go away on a trip overnight, is it okay if Luke watches you and stays here or do you want Aunt Cara to instead?” Din looked up from his writing to Grogu. Grogu blinked. “Luke can also watch you during the day and Aunt Cara can be here at night?” Grogu looked down to his meal and broke his bacon into little pieces. Din stood up, walked over to Grogu and knelt down. Grogu didn’t look up from his plate, but Din saw his little bottom lip poke out and his brow scrunch.  
“I’m sorry that I’m leaving so soon and that I can’t take you with me. I’ll still call twice a day and it’ll only be for a night,” No change from Grogu. “I’m headed over to Italy, do you want anything from there?” They both hated how often Din traveled. Grogu handled how spontaneous Din’s schedule was very well. Partially because Din did his best to keep him updated and still prove that he loved him. Normally Din would have known weeks in advance, but the company his client owned was growing exponentially so there were a lot of last-minute trips as of late. He only found out about this little excursion last night at 1 AM.  
“Golia,” Grogu signed after a minute. Din already knew he would ask for that, he always asked for those candies when he went to Italy. Din opened his arms up and Grogu fell into them. He was so small in Dins arms that it felt more like holding a dog than a child.   
After breakfast and a very sudsy bath with plenty of toys, Grogu was feeling much better. Since he was feeling down, Din let him eat in the tub- an odd treat that he would always go crazy over. Grogu helped his dad pack for his trip, picking out which ties and pajamas he wore, and once they were all finished Din fished under his shirt and took off a necklace. It was a sterling silver woolly rhino skull on black rope that wasn’t larger than a half-dollar coin, and once Grogu saw the necklace he smiled.  
When Din went back to work after adopting Grogu, he only took jobs that would allow him to bring Grogu along- most of them being extravagant international vacations where clients would bring their kids along as well. One trip was to Africa to tour a reserve that the client made a large donation to; despite being financially caring about wildlife, the client spent most of the tour taunting the animals. Things escalated to the point where Din had to stop a charging Rhino with his bare hands, and had never lived that down since. For a while he was called “Rhino”, until someone found out about woolly rhinos and was then called “The Woolly Rhino” within the private security community for both the rhino ordeal and for his amount of general hair. For Christmas his client gave him the woolly rhino necklace as a formal apology, and when Din would leave for any trip without Grogu, he would give the necklace to him.  
Grogu grabbed it with his tiny hands and slipped it around his head. The pendant swung at his belly while he ran around the apartment. Din laughed and followed along with his suitcase. He sat his bag by the door and peered out the window to see the top of Luke’s blonde head walk towards the apartment. Din went over the kitchen and finished the last few lines of his note and gave Grogu one last kiss on the top of his head before stepping out the door.   
“I know you forever,” Din signed   
“I know you forever, too,” Grogu signed back. Din blew him a kiss and left.  
Din hated what he did next: he lingered in the stairwell to make sure Luke got to their apartment. It wasn’t healthy of him to avoid Luke like that, but Din already had to say goodbye to his son and to confront Luke about last night would drain him completely. He drove away in his clunker of a car and pulled out the little knob Grogu played with from his pocket. It would only be two days. It would only be two days.   
Luke didn’t see any figures on his way to Din’s apartment, and when he did enter, Grogu was sitting on the couch playing with his temporary necklace.   
“Where's your dad?” Luke asked as he sat his things down. Grogu pointed over to the notepad on the kitchen table.  
“He’s in Italy,” Grogu signed, in his mind as soon as his dad was out the door he was already where he was supposed to be. He had traveled internationally, he knew how flying worked, yet Grogu believed that when travel didn’t involve him it was instantaneous. Luke scrunched his face, not believing it but did not have much to go off of. Luke went over to the table and picked up the notepad. The writing was messy with skinny letters that were very minimal, yet with very straight lines.

“I’m on a last-minute travel assignment to Italy. I only knew about it since last night after you left, and didn’t want to bother you any further. The trip will only last today, tonight, and tomorrow and I made your room along with preparing toiletries and spare clothes that are on the bed. Grogu knows all of this already, and if you need to go to your house to pick up your things call the number below (the number is for Cara Dune, Grogu calls her “aunt Cara”) and she can watch him while you’re gone. I would prefer if you spent the night, but if that isn’t possible then Cara can watch him.’  
“I promised to call Grogu twice a day, so when there’s a spare moment when the child is up I’ll be calling him on the tablet that is on my bed. He likes being alone during them so don’t enter his room and don’t take offense if he’s in there the whole time.’  
“”As for last night:’  
“I work in private security as an Executive Protection Agent (EP), things don’t go bad often but when they do it’s often placed on EP’s. A co-worker needed some extra hands last night and things went bad. Reputation is everything in my line of work, and if others found out that I needed care outside of my own my career would have suffered. I’m doing fine now. The child doesn’t see me like that until I’m bandaged up. Do not tell him what you saw last night. Grogu doesn’t like the sight of blood.’  
“I left at 7:58’  
“Din Djarin”  
Luke looked at the clock on the oven. 8:03. Din ducked out right as he was headed up... that oddly stung a bit.   
Grogu toddled over to him and raised his arms, Luke picked him up and sat him on his hip. Although he had already spent the day in the apartment, Luke hadn’t paid that much attention to the decor- and now seemed like a good time to check it out.


	7. Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke takes a look around Din's apartment

There weren’t any mirrors in the apartment. Luke noticed that there were none in the bathroom when he first used it, but there were no mirrors that were out in the open in the entire apartment. Grogu pulled out a hand held one from a drawer in his bedroom when asked, and a double sided standing mirror on the small desk in Luke’s room, yet outside of those there were none in the entire house. 

The room Luke would be staying in was as comfortably plain as the rest of the house- except the walls were more bare. The only things that hung on the walls of the apartment were clocks, Grogu’s artwork, and a few canvas paintings scattered about. Luke hadn’t seen Dins room yet, he was still occupied with the rest of the house and his room in particular. As Din said there were toiletries, linens, and clothes on his neatly tucked bed. Luke unfolded the clothes and held them up- compared to his frame they were huge, as if they were…

Dins. 

Luke stared at the white tee-shirt with such intensity his eyes hurt. It made sense, with such short notice he probably just picked out the nicest clothes he didn’t care to keep. Still, it took Luke a moment. He riffled through the clothing: a white tee-shirt, a pair of grey sweatpants, one medium Billy Joel album shirt that seemed to be bought upon the albums release, a pair of briefs, and a pair of Levi jeans that were close enough to his size to fit (probably purchased when Din was thinner). They probably smelled like Din, would it have been weird for him to check? 

It was too late, they smelled like laundry detergent and cologne that had jasmine and something woodsy in it. A rhythmic beeping played from the next room over and Luke could hear the pittering of Grogu’s feet with a little jovial scream. He left the little bedroom and followed the noise into Din’s room. The room smelled more strongly of the cologne that laced the clothing and had more artwork on the walls. A tablet in a lime green rubber case was the source of all the noise, with a doodle Grogu made and the name “Dad/Din” lighting the screen up. Luke handed it over to Grogu and he darted away as quickly as he accepted the call. 

“Grogu!” Luke heard Din cheer through the tablet. Grogu squealed at the sound of his own name and carried the tablet into his bedroom just as Din predicted. There were pauses between what Din said, and Luke assumed it was Grogu signing back. Luke’s room was right next to Grogu’s and with how easily he heard the conversation in Dins room that was across the hall, Luke took his bets that Dins room would be the most quiet place in the apartment and stayed put. 

He wouldn’t snoop around, he would stay put. From where he stood Luke could see everything except what was on the other side of Din’s bed. Instead of a closet, a rod that ran wall to wall held all of Din's suits and hanging clothes, sorted by item and grouped by what would be worn together. At the very end were a few ties that hung freely and made Luke feel a bit crazed.. His bed was the most extravagant part in the room with grey silk sheets and pillow cases, and a very puffy comforter, the rest was as bare and rudimentary as possible. The dresser only had a cologne bottle, a reversible belt with a golden buckle, and loose cufflinks. The bedside table was even more quaint because it was a milkcrate that had various books in it with an alarm clock on top. Luke could see quite clearly that some were picture books while others were books Din would read himself.

If he has stayed there any longer, Luke would have started to actually snoop around, so he went to the main living area, sat down at the kitchen table, and began to look through his notes on possible activities to do. He already came up with a few ideas of places to go, like museums, nearby playgrounds or the dates of fairs, so all that was left was going to them. Grogu came back into the living room and raised the tablet to Luke, who took it gently.  
“Thank you, Grogu,” Luke said. He rested the tablet against a glass of water he was drinking from and propped it to show his face. What was being shown on Din’s side wasn’t his face but rather clouds up in the air. “Are you on a plane right now?” Luke tried figuring out what he was seeing

“Yeah, I’m at cruising altitude right now so I’m allowed to make a call and Grogu likes looking at the sky,”

“That was fast,” 

“Well, it’s been an hour since I left, the drive is short and my co-pilot had everything ready when I got here. Private airports tend to move quickly,”

“You fly?” Luke blurted out, hoping that it would prevent a dip in the conversation that would just circle back to the previous night.

“Yeah, got my license when I was 26? When my job picked up. You said you used to be a pilot on your resume, right?”

“Mhm, when I was in the air force, but I haven’t flown that much since,”

Silence on Dins end, but the rustling of clothing made it sound like Din shook his head. Din thought for a moment to ask Luke more about his time in the military, but with such a sudden career change he probably wanted to leave that in the past. 

“Is that the nanny?” Another voice from Din’s end rumbled through, it was oddly familiar to Luke yet he couldn’t quite pin down why.

“Yeah,” Din replied, “that’s my co-pilot, he’s a bit nosey.” 

“Only for you, Woolly” the man retorted back.

“Woolly?” Luke asked

“Long story,” Din shifted the camera a bit before it jolted a bit “I’m hitting some turbulence, gotta go. I went grocery shopping yesterday so there’s stuff in the fridge, tell Grogu I love him,” Din hit the hang up button on his phone and put it back in his pocket. He hit the intercoms and cleared his throat, “sorry about that folks, turbulence should be mild for the next five minutes before we’re back to smooth air,” 

Din and his co-pilot returned to their work for a bit, knowing that their client was the type to whine about turbulence, until his co-pilot broke the silence.

“Is he the one that makes you blush every time you mention him?” Din said nothing, but the tips of his ears went a shade red, causing him to laugh from his belly. “Do you even know his name?”

“Shut up, Boba,” Din mumbled under his breath, in total honesty every time before he met his nanny but that didn’t muddle the awkward and giddy feeling he always felt when they met. Din looked at Boba in the corner of his eye and saw a dumb smile grow on his face. He let out a sigh and tried to focus back on the task at hand. 

“What color are his eyes?” Boba Fett teased.

“...baby blue.” Din only caught glimpses of Luke’s face yet he couldn’t forget it, especially late at night when his mind went still. It wasn’t a problem yet, so he decided to let sleeping dogs lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks y'all for the 1k hits and 100 kudos. I didn't expect a passion project like this to garner that level of attention, but I'm grateful for every comment, bookmark, and kudo I get.


	8. Battle of the Bands (Extra)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm currently in a small patch of writers rut for the current plot, so here's the story of the first time Fennec asked someone out. Set in Din, Boba, Fennec, and Cara's first semester of college and "canon" in this fanfic.

In her youth, Fennec Shand was not the type of woman to flirt. Yes, she was beautiful, smart, and cool, but had only dated people she knew as friends first who made the first move until college. This is the story of how Fennec not only got the girl, but broke the pattern. 

It was her freshman year of college, she was the youngest person in her entire class due to skipping multiple grades in her youth and an early high school graduation, Fennec worked so hard because even she knew that her academic career would only be a blip compared to what she had planned later on. This mentality made her not only focused on academics, but also caused a struggling social life for her. Making friends was easier in college than highschool though, but considering how she had none in high school the bar was on the floor. 

Her first ever friend she made in college were two boys at the gym- not men. The two were larger than her by at least 50 pounds and half a foot, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t try to outdo the other on weights or run until they threw up in a “friendly” competition. Her college didn’t have the nicest gym in the world, but it did have a rock wall that for the time was cutting edge and was packed at all the regular hours. For Fennec, it was the only full-body workout that fit her routine so she would have to wake up at the crack of dawn or sneak in before closing to be able to climb. For some reason the two bumbling idiots were always there climbing too. At any hour outside of classes they were both there, and Fennec hated it. She would do routes as quickly as possible and then continue on with her workout.

As time went on, the two boys would huddle together when she started a route and cheered her on when she finished, then once she left they would do the same route as her. It took about a week for Fennec to figure out that they were not only cheering her on, but timing her and trying to replicate the results. Fennec confronted them about this, thinking that they were teasing this young girl, when in reality these two fools found her extremely talented and even respected her. Their relationship began to grow outside of the gym, until they were all regular visitors at each other's dorms. 

The two boys’s names were Din and Boba, and while Din was the more reserved of the two, Fennec favored Boba. It also helped he quite literally saved her life when her insulin pump failed by taking her to the hospital. 

The next friend Fennec would make was through Din, her name was Cara and was the actual owner of Din's dorm (just like how Din technically owned Cara’s). Despite Cara and Din submitting all their applications with their proper pronouns and gender, the college they attended failed to acknowledge either of their transitions when putting them into the male and female dormitories. So they simply swapped and pretended to live in their assigned rooms when room checks occured. She was way more tolerable than the other two and shared a few classes with Fennec, but always sat in the back while Fennec who was always in the front. Two months into this quad’s friendship, Fennec bursted into Din’s dorm after class.

“Din, what instruments can you play?” 

“Uh, I can play the bass kind of?” Din was sitting on his bed, holding said bass as Boba laid on the floor on his back with a phonebook in his hand. 

“Cool, what about you?” Fennec turned to Boba, who slowly turned his head to face her with something smoking hanging from his mouth.

“....triangle,” Boba muttered as he bore his bloodshot eyes onto Fennec

“-and the guitar in highschool, don’t forget that,” Din added to which Boba groaned. “He stopped playing because he couldn’t get paid gigs- which makes sense,” Din smirked as Boba lazily smacked his leg with the phone book from the ground.

“What if you could get paid?” Fennec asked, to which Boba sat up and turned his body around for. “The music club doing a battle of the bands and the prize money is $100 just for third place,” 

“The hippies? You know I hate those guys! Wait, is this for that girl in your linguistics class?” Boba whined.

“And if it was?”

“-we’ll do it.” Din interjected before Boba was able to turn it down. “Cara too, she has a drum kit. Was a pain in the ass to move but it’s nice.”

Fennec smiled, and closed the door before swinging it open once again.

“It’s in a month, but we can sing covers as long as we mix it up.” Fennec closed the door before opening it again, “we’ll practice before going to the gym,” The two boys groaned at the addition, “It’s the only time we’re all free and it’ll motivate us to get things done.” With that she quickly left and went to go tell Cara about the whole arrangement. 

“What the fuck is ‘La Vie En Rose’?” Boba asked as he flipped through the sheet music. They had been practicing for two weeks now and despite Din recommending either folk songs or Billy Joel, Fennec was the only one who bothered with the song selection. 

“It’s a French love song, we’re gonna put it to our instruments and it should make it sound rock enough,” Cara responded as she shifted on her stool. “Fennec said that yesterday, weren’t you listening?” 

“...no.”

Din sat his music down on the floor and spread it apart with his feet. “Are you singing this for her?” 

The small band all turned to face him. 

“I mean, you guys did a French unit in class together, right? Then you should know this song is actually really sad then,” Din softly played a measure that he found hard twice and stepped on a pedal to see how it sounded distorted. 

“It’s… not for her,” Fennec lied, the woman in her linguistics class did a lyrics analysis of this for their French unit, and Din was right. It was a song about love and loss but the look in her eyes as she recited the poem was enough for Fennec to want to sing it for eternity. “And since when could you speak French?” Fennec realized

“It’s like spanish and it’s a romance language, so it’s kind of easy,” 

“That only makes me more curious,” Cara replied in awe. 

“Let’s just play,” Fennec wanted this performance to be good. Not only for the sake of her crush, but also because she didn’t want to make a fool of herself. 

Their finalized set list consisted of “La Vie En Rose” by Edith Piaf, “16 Tons” by Tennesse Ernie Ford, “Dear Prudence” by Siouxie Sioux and The Banshees, and “Vienna” by Billy Joel. All of it was done with their four piece band, and Fennec did lead vocals. It was the day of the concert when Fennec stopped by everyone's dorms with the attire requirements. First up was Din and Boba, who would have been in Din’s dorm at that hour.

“I was just gonna wear this,” Din gestured at his busted flannel and battered jeans with socks and sandals. 

“Same here,” Bobas attire was arguably worse with a free shirt he got during spirit week and bare feet. 

“You’re wearing these,” Fennec lobbed them both black button up shirts and long sleeve white undershirts. “I know how you two like to wear long sleeve stuff so style the button ups however you want and if you want you can wear the shirts underneath. I got them at goodwill but you still owe me five bucks each, and whatever pants you want that you’d wear to impress a date,” Fennec promptly left and headed over to Caras dorm. 

“I was just gonna wear this,” Cara responded, dawned in skinny jeans and a grey tee shirt. 

“What is with you people?” Fennec moaned. “Wear this,” She chucked a plastic bag full of clothes at her. Cara opened the bag and saw a pair of black leggings and a white and black plaid half skirt with a white button up. “You’re borrowing them so I’ll want them back after tonight,” 

Cara couldn’t seem to understand the skirt, “why do you even own this?” Fennec shrugged and sat down on Caras bed. “What are you doing?” 

“You’re makeup,” Fennec pulled a small makeup bag out of her backpack and Cara's eyes bulged open. 

“No!” She screamed before Fennec pinned her down laughing. 

They all met up outside of the concert hall an hour before it began- as all the bands did. Despite equipment being provided, Din and Cara insisted on bringing their own and so Fennec and Boba helped shuttle Cara’s drum kit. As Cara signed them in Fennec's posture shot straight up. 

“Do you see her?” Boba nudged at the blushing woman. Fennec's eyes darted away and he looked at where she once did. A woman with a square face and long dark hair filled his line of sight. “Is that her? She's hot,” Fennec socked his shoulder and Boba let out a yelp. “What’s her name?” 

“Omera. She’s the MC,” Fennec joined Boba in his gawking as the woman carried cases of water around. 

“Guys,” Cara tugged at the sleeve of Bobas long sleeve shirt, for some reason he decided to cut the button up sleeves off and wear it as a vest with the white shirt underneath, “C’mon,” Cara had already signed in and Din was almost backstage. Fennec and Boba snapped out of it and skittered along. 

Most of their time before their performance was sitting in the audience. Some of the bands were good, most were mediocre, and few were hilariously bad. 

“Stop touching it,” Fennec smacked Caras hand as she picked at her fresh mascara that Fennec had so kindly applied. 

“It’s super heavy, this is why I never wear this stuff,” Cara whispered as a guitar trio played on stage. 

“You look great though,” 

“I look like I’m in a Blondie Halloween costume, are you gonna change or anything before we go on?” 

“No? This is my outfit,” Fennec gestured at her tight black trench coat with shoulder pads and punk patches that were paired with pleather pants and her signature red-threaded braids . “Does it not look good?” 

Cara stared at Fennec for a moment before focusing on the band playing. Fennec turned to Boba, “Boba, do I look okay?” 

Boba stared at her for a moment and shrugged. 

“I don’t even know why I’m asking you,” She realized as she looked at the poor man's version of John from The Breakfast Club. 

“You look great,” Boba uttered and returned to the band. It might have been the dark lights but his skin looked a little pink then. 

“Another round of applause for ‘Oat Milk breakfast’!” Omera walked back onstage and clapped her hands, “up next, ‘The Bounty Hunters’ after a short intermission!” Fennec stood up and the trio looked at her. 

“That’s our band's name,” Din, Boba, and Cara didn’t understand, “it was either that or just our names and I know Bobas just in it for the money.”

“Oh, so am I,” Cara added. 

The rest all headed over to the stage and set up the equipment. Fennec tried to lower the mic stand but was failing miserably. 

“Do you need any help?” Omera asked. Fennec jolted up, not realizing that she was still on stage. 

“Uh, no. I um think I-“ a metal nut dropped to the ground and she froze in her place. Omera just picked it up and screwed it back into place and began to lower and tilt it inward. 

“Could you stand how you’re going to perform real quick?” She was so close to Fennec that it made her a bit woozy in the knees. Fennec tried to muscle through it and adjusted her posture as Omera was inches away from her face. “Alright, you should be good,” 

“Ah, after this do you want to-“ Fennec spoke but was cut off as feedback blared through the speakers. 

“Sorry about that folks! We’ll start again in two minutes,” Omera projected to the small crowd with a bright smile on her face. Fennec pursed her lips and looked to Boba setting up the amp. “You were saying?” 

“Oh, I was just wondering if you’d like to get coffee after this?” Fennec ended at almost a whisper, feeling all air escape her lungs as she spoke. 

“What?”

“Coffee?” Fennec's voice boomed over the sound system, causing her to reel back at the sudden life of the microphone infront of her. The sound team had turned her mic on right as she spoke. 

“I would love that,” Omera smiled in a whisper before turning to the audience. “Alright everyone, please put your hands together for ‘The Bounty Hunters’!” 

Weak applause rattled around and Fennec tried her best to collect herself as Boba started the lead-in. 

To say that they were spectacular would be unwarranted. The most skilled one there was Cara, who in all honesty did not show up sober, and Fennec always took herself too seriously to look completely comfortable on stage. Once they were done they broke down their gear and joined the audience. After three more hours of average covers and interesting original songs, the awards ceremony rolled around. 

“Did you plan on not seeing her the whole time?” Boba leaned onto Fennec who by now was on cloud nine. 

“We’re getting coffee after this, I’ll see her then,” 

“It’s already 11 and she probably has to clean up,”

“It’ll be tea then,” 

The lights on the house went down and Omera walked back on stage with three envelopes. 

“Alright who’s ready to hear the winners of tonight’s Battle of the Bands!” 

Once again weak applause from everyone except from Fennec, who almost stood up until Boba stopped her. 

“First I’d like to start off with our honorable mentions!” Omera took a moment to open up a slip of paper, “Brothers of Jed, and Lyn and the Houses!” The two bands hollered at the sound of their names, some wearing Baja jackets and others in flowy skirts with crappy lace trim.

“Granola,” Bobs whispered to Fennec. 

“In third place, with a prize of $100, we have…” Omera paused for effect, “The Bounty Hunters!” 

Boba and Cara sprang out of their seats and climbed over their fellow bandmates to hug each other to celebrate at the top of their lungs. Din looked over to Fennec, and she got up and headed over to the stage. 

“Thank you,” Fennec uttered. 

“They do know they’re only getting $25 each, right?” Omera looked at the two who were still jumping around. 

“Yeah,” Fennec grabbed the envelope yet Omera held on for a moment. 

“I’ll get out of here in about an hour, kinda late for coffee but maybe not for tea at my place?”

Fennec felt her chest heat up and nodded before scurrying away. When she sat back down Boba and Cara had already left and Din sat there, looking at her plainly. 

“Did they leave?” Fennec looked around. 

“They wanted to celebrate,” Din replied, knowing full well that Boba would barge into his room later that night to talk about Fennec then promise him to not tell anyone about it. 

“I haven’t even given them their money,”

Din shrugged, “how’d it go with…” he trailed off, not knowing the name of her soon to be date. 

“-Omera? We’re heading over to her place after,” 

Din nodded and laid back in his seat. As the rest of the winners were listed he fiddled with the buttons on his cuffs. He was older than Fennec, yet unlike her he hadn’t dated anyone. It didn’t bother him- Din simply hadn’t liked anyone yet. But there was still this little seed of fear in his chest that made him worry that he would never feel anything close to love or a crush in the future, and that was something that he wanted. He wanted love, and the thought of never having it terrified him.


	9. Grits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grogu's morning with Luke.

The rest of the day with Luke and Grogu was very relaxed. Luke decided to not go to his apartment and instead use what Din had left behind for him and spend the night which Grogu took kindly to. They did some coloring and educational games and ended it with a kids movie that Grogu picked out himself. Luke let him pick out what they did the next day, and Grogu chose a children's museum that was 45 minutes away. 

As Luke laid in bed that night, he kept looking at the note Din left that he placed on his nightstand. Din’s job made all of the past interactions make a bit more sense, his sister had numerous EP’s in the past, but they were always provided by others since she would normally either handle things on her own or tote around Han. He tried to recall what they did exactly besides shadow them, but came up empty.

Luke’s screen lit up and he rolled over to look at the notification.

“Leia: sounds good! I think it’ll be good for them” Luke had told his sister about their plans for tomorrow, and asked her if she wanted Ben to come along. Leia was busy the next day, but stuck Han in her place. He had noticed that by what Din said and how Grogu acted at the playground, that the kid hadn’t spent that much time with other children. 

So far the only people Luke had met in either of Din or Grogu’s lives were adults that were older than him, and in the notes Din left behind none of his contacts seemed to have children. Grogu was old enough for pre-K, yet Din was adamant on him not starting school until kindergarten. He didn’t elaborate on that, yet it was one of his most firm rules that resulted in him needing a nanny in the first place. Compared to Luke’s nephew, Ben, Grogu didn’t have any exposure to kids his age and so he thought it best to broaden the kid’s horizon with a playdate at the museum. And in all honesty Ben was starting to get a little snobby being surrounded by politicians' children.

Luke opened up a meditation app on his phone and selected rain sounds before laying back down. It had been months since his last night terror and taking a hot shower and meditating before bed helped, but there was still a creeping fear that he would have one that would wake up Grogu. 

Thankfully the night was peaceful, and Grogu woke up to Luke. Grogu lifted his arms up and was carried out of bed and over the bed rails before being sat down. 

“I made shrimp and grits for breakfast and there’s some juice too, is that okay?” Luke asked as the two headed to the kitchen. Grogu nodded, still rubbing sleep from his eyes as he was hoisted into his chair. In the packet Din first gave Luke, he listed how Grogu’s morning routine was always the same and that deviating from it was really stressful for him. Din even went as far as to say what meals he would make on which days and little tricks to boost Grogu’s mood if he was cranky. 

The two ate in silence, Grogu having a little fun with the consistency of his grits and taking little sips of juice. This time Luke played it smart and left a little dish of hot sauce next to Grogu’s food for him to use as needed. Luke took this time to double check with Han that he and Ben were still available, get directions, and buy the tickets for the museum. Right as he was done with all of his tasks, Grogu clapped to get his attention. He held up an empty bowl and a small empty cup.

“Good job! Thank you for eating all of it,” Luke got up and put their dishes in the dishwasher as rhythmic beeping played once more. Grogu squealed and ran over to his room, where the tablet ended up the day before, and just like last time Din cheered Grogus name on the other end.

Luke started getting everything ready for Grogu’s bath to give them a moment, and as he let the water cool Luke popped into his guest room and changed into the spare clothing. When he walked out Grogu was waiting by his door with the tablet in his hands. “Is that for me?” 

Grogu nodded and lifted it up.

“Thank you!” Luke gently took the laptop and held it up. The screen was black. “Hello?” Unsure if things were working right.

“Don’t worry, I’m here I just can’t reveal my location,” On Din’s side all that could be heard was his voice and nothing else. “How was breakfast?” By this point Din knew the speed at which Grogu ate well enough to be able to call right before his bath and right after eating. 

“Great, he ate everything and now we’re getting ready for today. Grogu wanted to go to the children's museum so we’re gonna do that before you get back. I noticed that Grogu doesn’t seem to have many friends his age, so my brother in law and nephew might come along since he’s around the same age, is that okay?” Grogu tugged at the leg of Luke’s jeans and pointed to the bathroom, “Once I’m done talking to your dad you can take a bath, could you pick out a shirt to wear today until then?” Grogu nodded and hurried back into his room to pick out a shirt. Even though he was leaving, Grogu could hear his dad agree to what Luke said, he sounded uneasy but Grogu was thrilled. 

As Grogu’s dad and nanny talked, he got to work picking out his own shirt. He pulled out a small bin where all of his shirts were neatly folded and stared at them for a moment. There weren’t that many colors to pick from- beige, grey, or green- yet that did not hinder the importance of his decision. Green. Grogu then pulled out the first green shirt he saw, one that was similar to camouflage but in a more fun variant of greens and with frogs as splotches of color. Grogu headed back to his nanny with his decision and handled his load with the utmost care then tapped Lukes leg once more. 

Luke looked down, and smiled as Grogu handed the tiny shirt to him, “How about a pair of pants too?” Grogu gasped, normally his father would pick out the rest of his ensemble but now he got to pick out a pair of pants too? In reality Luke and Din were going over the next two weeks and working out a schedule and needed to stall, but kids couldn’t stand around waiting like adults so Luke tried to keep him occupied. 

Grogu’s dad had the same clothing philosophy for his son as he did himself- which was “essentials and organics”. Neither of them could stand synthetic fabric, nor did either of them really need a lot of variety in their closets, so in the pants department Grogu had 100% cotton jeans, khaki pants, and cargo shorts. Even with only three options he took his time, going between the jeans and khakis before landing on jeans. Their pockets were nicer anyways. 

Grogu came running back to Luke with his choice and lifted up the pants. He waved his hands at Luke and signed “Dad!”, to which Luke bent down and turned the screen to face him. “Shirt! Tell him about the shirt!” 

“Oh, uh how do the clothes fit?” Din’s tone faltered a bit, not quite sure how to say it eloquently.

“They’re good! I needed a belt for the jeans but everything else fit,” Luke replied, keeping the tablet facing Grogu.

“Noo! Tell him about the shirt!” Grogu signed a little bit more dramatically. He snatched the tablet from Luke and signed once more about the shirt.

“I’ll tell him later, kid, I need to go,” Even though the tablet wasn’t facing Luke, light hit Grogu’s face and there was a small pause- Din was signing something to his son. 

“I know you forever,” Grogu signed before the screen turned off. He handed the tablet back to Luke and headed over to the bathroom. He was clearly a little down. Luke followed after him and started getting him ready for his bath.

“What did you want him to say?” Luke asked as he checked to see that the water was still warm. Grogu let out a little huff. 

“His favorite,” Grogu pointed his little finger at the shirt Luke wore, “‘tells a story about it every time.” Luke looked down at the t-shirt. 

“This one?” Luke pointed at Billy Joel's face. 

Grogu nodded, “It’s older than me!” 

Luke laughed a little bit, “most things are, now let's get you clean.”


	10. Museum Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grogu meets Ben and Han, to which Han talks Luke into trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2K hits days after 1k- all of which was achieved in a week? You guys are absolute fiends. I'll try to do us all right.

This would be the first time Grogu would have gone to a children's museum. Luke tried explaining it to him, saying that it was a science themed playground, or that it was more interactive than other museums, but the concept didn’t seem to get across. Luke made sure to tell Grogu they would be meeting Ben and Han, and that if he wanted to take a break or didn’t want to spend time with him to just find Luke and they would either just focus on the museum, leave and do something else, or collect themselves in a quiet space. 

Luke was nervous. He wouldn’t tell Grogu, but he was worried that the playdate would not go well. They were going in the morning before Ben’s afternoon Pre-K and before the afternoon rush, but it was still a new environment and someone Grogu hadn’t met yet. Not only that, but Ben didn’t know ASL that well. His school taught it, along with Latin and Mandarin in the later grades, but he knew Ben didn’t care much for learning languages and wondered if the picture cards would be enough. 

They met Han and Ben by the entrance, and Ben ran right up to Luke and Grogu upon seeing them. 

“Hi uncle Luke!” Ben screeched.

“Hello, Ben. Grogu, this is Ben; Ben, this is Grogu. I’m taking care of him while his dad is at work,” Luke gestured to both of them, Grogu had his arm wrapped around Luke’s leg and was fiddling with Dins woolly rhino necklace as he glanced at Ben from moment to moment.

“I thought you were dating his dad?” Ben blurted out, Luke whipped his head to Ben and looked both enraged and confused.

“Where’d you get that from?” Luke’s chest tightened a bit. Ben shrugged in response- to him people could only look after kids if they were part of their family, not if they were paid to.

“I like your shirt!” Ben pointed to Grogu’s shirt. When Grogu heard that, his face lit up.

“Do you like frogs too?” Grogu signed. Ben scrunched his face up, not understanding what he said exactly.

“What does,” Ben signed frog, “mean?”

Grogu took out his small pack of picture cards bound by a ring that he had in his little tan backpack, and flipped through until he got to frog (yes, the word frog was it’s own card that Din had to print from online himself), then placed the deck on the ground to sign the word once more. 

“Frog!” Ben signed back as he said it, Grogu nodded and giggled a bit, “Like their throats!” in reference to the hand widening at the neck. Grogu tucked his arms in and did a little wiggle as he nodded some more. 

Luke picked up Grogu’s cards off the ground, flipped to the cover, and put them back into his tiny backpack as the two boys began to spiral into a frog conversation- it was mostly Ben talking but Grogu liked it that way. 

“You weren’t kidding when you said he didn’t talk,” Han’s voice emanated from Luke’s side right as he placed his hand on Luke’s shoulder.

“That’s a bit rude, Han,” Luke hugged Han and when they pulled away Han kept his arm around Luke’s shoulders, “where do you guys want to start?” Luke looked back to the two chattering boys.

“Sahara!” Ben shouted as Grogu pointed to the entrance hall to the exhibit. 

“Sahara it is,” Han replied as they all began to head over. When the kids gained some distance, Han took a step out and faced Luke. “You remember that higher minimum wage bill Leia’s working on?” Luke nodded, despite being elected as a state legislature for the first time this year, his sister was already working on some controversial bills and laws. “Well… it would also affect bartenders at clubs and-”

“Don’t tell me,”

“And Lando is going to lobby against it. ‘Put up ads and lawyer up, the whole thing.”

Luke let out a small sigh, Lando Calrissian had a very odd fascination with the Skywalkers and ever since a particularly bad dinner party they were on bad terms. But with his amount of financial and political sway, Leia had to get on his good side. And if Leia had to be on his good side they all had to be on his good side.

“He’s hosting a party this weekend at his place. Sent us invites and a plus one. I think it’s for you.”

“When is it?”

“Saturday at like 10-”

“Sorry, I can’t make it. That’s the only night I’m working next week,”

“C’mon! Leia’s been working her ass off for this bill and Lando’s the person leading the opposition. Listen, I don't want to go either but it's our best option. Can’t you work something out?” 

Luke hesitated, Din did give him an extra day off because of the short-notice overnight shift he worked on his first week- which he was still in the process of fulfilling. Did he want to use it so soon though? It was for a good cause, and when Lando threatened any major political move against Leia it was almost always for attention from their family. The last time something like this happened Luke and Han simply stopped by his office and he backed off.

“Okay, I’ll go. Is there a theme this time?” Lando was unfortunately a fan of the occasional themed party, and Luke learned the hard way to ask ahead of time.

“Masquerade. Real fancy stuff, heard he’s getting an orchestra instead of a DJ kind of fancy.” 

“Alright, let me call my boss,” Luke pulled out his phone and began to make the call.

-

“Who was that?” Boba asked. Once again, Din and Boba were back to piloting the private jet of their client. They were quite literally in Italy for a single meeting, some shopping, and a meal.

“Nanny, he wanted the night off on Saturday,” Din shoved his phone back into his front pocket.

“Ain't that the night of the party? You’re assigned to a guest that night though,”

“I think Ahsoka’s in town so I’ll let her watch him for the night. She’ll probably want a building to sleep in too,” Din pulled his phone out again and began to type her a quick text.

“She still living in that van?” Boba retorted. 

Ahsoka Tano had lived a very odd life, bouncing around from assistant to a fortune 500 CEO, to social worker, and now taking a break from work as a whole and traveling north America in a renovated van.

“Yeah, hasn’t made it to the territories in Canada yet,” Din sent the text and got a simple “sure” in response. “Are they providing the uniforms?” 

“Yeah, these silly capes, and masks, and shit that we still have to wear suits under,”

Din let out a little huff. He found it ridiculous that someone with so many high profile guests would throw a gathering where hidden identity was the theme, it always made his job more difficult.


	11. Pigeons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Din and Luke finally meet, and Luke surprises Din.

Din was supposed to arrive at home by 5 PM, Grogu was fast asleep, and Luke was waiting patiently by the door.

He would not miss his opportunity to see Dins face. Not this time. 

At 5:28 a loud knocking came from the door, and when Luke opened it a leafy branch grazed his face. 

“Sorry I’m back so late, my client’s testing out some plants for this event they’re having, and’s been handing out the rejects,” The bush walked through the door, and out from the back of it there poked out the legs and back of a man. Incredible. The situation ceased to amaze Luke.

“That’s okay, Grogu’s been asleep now for the past ten minutes. I preheated the oven like you asked,” Luke knew better than to ask Din if he needed help at this point, he had already proved capable of carrying more than humanly possible. 

“Can you set these in the kitchen?” An arm swung out from the bush that was weighed down by plastic takeout bags, one smaller than the other. 

Luke took them, hurried over to the kitchen and sat them down on the counter, not wanting to miss an opportunity. When he turned back to Din, he was standing in the middle of the living room still holding the bush, debating on where to put the plant. “Do you want me to-”

“Oh, wait, the smaller bag is for you. I got Chinese and didn’t know if you wanted anything so I got you veggie rolls. Your checks also in there,” 

Luke walked back into the kitchen, and as Din said, the smaller bag had a fortune cookie, a side of veggie rolls, and a plastic zip bag with a check inside. For a second, Luke thought that they were going to have dinner together.

“Have a nice weekend, I’ll try to make it so you get a better heads-up next time,” Din’s voice echoed. 

Luke thought wrong, he wasn’t embarrassed about it, but then became quite awkward and scurried out with a little goodbye. Din wondered why he left in such a rush.

For the next week, Din either left right as Luke was headed up or was already in his motorcycle gear. And when he came back, Din was drowning in plants that his client gave him. After a few days, the cozy apartment became a jungle. 

The day of Lando’s party- which in all honesty was shaping up to be a ball- Ahsoka spent the day with Grogu and Din (so that Din could get some sleep before an overnight shift, but also because Grogu genuinely missed her). She was the social worker who really helped speed up the adoption process for them, and while Grogu was under her care she treated him with more compassion than any other caretaker at that point. Grogu never seemed to forget that, and always had a soft spot for her. Well, Grogu had a soft spot for most people, it was just that Ahsokas was bigger. 

While Din was passed out and making cold brew, Luke and Leia were getting ready for the party at Luke’s loft. Leia already knew what she was going to wear: a simple vintage velvet evening gown in a lovely shade of burgundy that she bought at a local high end vintage shop. Luke struggled at first, but then landed on a royal blue slim cut satin suit with a frilly white button up, and matching blue satin gloves. The two were told on the invitations that masks would be provided, which was a bit worrisome in all honesty, but they weren’t in the position to do much. 

“Just in and out, we meet him, do what he likes, stay long enough to seem like we enjoy the party, then bow out because Ben had a nightmare,” 

“Okay, is Han…” Luke’s voice trailed off, “you know?” 

“No, he’s not bringing his gun. Apparently Lando is finally giving two shits about security,” All three of them could shoot, pretty damn well in fact, but only Han kept a gun and a permit to carry. “I’m worried that he’ll go overboard to make everyone shut up though,”

“Probably,” Luke chuckled “sounds like Lando,” 

Leia was right. In order to enter the building, there not only was a line for the metal detector, but for a pat-down as well. With all the greenery around them it felt as though they were stranded in a jungle with 100 other people and nothing to do. 

“This is a nightmare,” Han grumbled. Unlike Leia and Luke, who wore something at least mildly outside the box, he wore a tux but with his shirt unbuttoned a bit lower than necessary. 

“Names please?” A woman in a glitzy uniform and plain white mask asked. 

“Leia Organa, Han Solo, and our plus one, Luke Skywalker,” Leia pointed at each of them as they unloaded their jackets. The woman nodded, grabbed their things, hurried away for a moment, and returned with three masks and a slip of paper. 

“You get a personal detail tonight! You won’t be allowed to enter without one, so head over to security,” the lady congratulated Leia. She handed a half cat shaped one to Luke, a half mask with feathers popping out for Leia, and another half mask with an argyle pattern was given to Han. As they walked away, Luke noticed that there were little slips of paper on the inside of their masks. 

“Gnaga?” Luke held up his little slip while he put his mask on and looked over to Hans, “yours must be Arlecchino, what about you Leia?” 

“Colombia, Lando really went all out, huh?” Leia slipped the mask on and felt the feathered rim and led the gang over to the security desk. “Leia Organa?” She placed the slip onto the desk and was taken slightly aback. 

The woman at the desk wore a full face white mask with red lace detailing and a three pointed hat. It was a bit of a cartoonish and haunting look. She took the slip from Leia, glanced at it and shouted: “Woolly?” 

Luke’s ears perked up, he had heard that before. Over the phone. When he was calling-

A man taller than Luke and Leia walked out from the booth and stopped in his tracks when he saw Luke’s face. He wore the same style mask as the woman at the desk, but with silver detailing all over. The man walked over to the woman, took her aside, and whispered to her. 

“Uh, Luke?” Leia turned to her brother, who was clearly the cataclysm for this inconvenience. 

“I think he’s my boss,” Luke spoke in a hushed tone, which made Han and Leia snap their heads to look at him. 

“He-!” Leia cut herself off, “he’s the idiot who’s face you haven’t seen?” Leia was about to either start hounding Din with questions, or grab Luke by the collar, when the woman spoke up again. 

“So I’ve been informed that you have a connection with Mr. Djarin, is that okay or would you like ano-“

“It’s fine! He’s fine, my name is Leia, Luke’s sister. This is my husband, Han, pleasure to meet you, Din,” She hurried over to him and stuck her hand out. Din sheepishly stepped forward and gave it a firm shake. Leia had a cheeky grin and looked back at Luke. “Let’s head in!” Leia started walking away, and Din followed suit like a pet dog. Han seemed a bit enthused, and Luke acted as if he was being pulled by a leash. 

“So Din, could you take your mask off for me?” Leia prompted. As they walked through a floral archway, Han and Din ducked a bit and Din guided them to the main area. Luke began to burn two holes in the back of Leia's head. 

“I’m afraid not, my contract stated that I keep this on until the end of my shift, and it also has my earpiece, ma’am,” When Din called Leia ma’am, she turned her head around to Luke and shot him a glance that screamed ‘this is a good one’. 

“What if I told you to? You’re my security now, right?”

“I'm merely outsourced to you and your party for the night. My clients' wishes come first,”

“If you’re allowed to take your mask off once you’re done working, and your job is to watch us, if I gave you permission to leave and I tell Lando, could you take your mask off then?”

“Leia-“ Luke interjected. She was trying too hard now and while he wanted to see his face too, Luke knew that it would happen in time. 

“In theory, yes. But I won’t permit that, ma’am,” Dins focus was still on Leia. 

“I’m more than capable, especially with these two jockeys,” 

“It’s just an added security measure, I don’t doubt that you-“ 

“What if we made a competition out of it, hm? If us three can beat you at a couple games, then we all go to Lando, I tell him that we’re leaving early and you’re off the clock, and if you win I won’t mention this again?” 

“Oh I like the sound of that,” Han butted in, ever since he saw Din, he had been wanting to see how strong he was. Even under a hat, mask, and cape, it was clear that he had a powerful build. Din had a feeling that Leia would hold up to her assumed threat to nag him the whole night about the mask and his face if he turned her down, and let out a sigh. 

“Fine.” His simple response caused Leia to beam and Han to smirk. As for Luke, he was a bit too embarrassed to do anything. 

“Okay, what should we do first?” 

“Shooting? Landos asked me to shoot clay pigeons more times than I can count so he probably has a range,” Han snagged a glass of champagne from a waitress walking by and took a small sip. 

“No,”

“It’s probably in the backyard grounds. Indoor ranges don’t do well and it’s showy to have one outside. Lando seems like a DTL or sporting clays kind of guy and if you’ve been working for him at his house for at least a week now, you know where the shooting range is,” Luke’s deduction caused the group to go quiet. 

“Where is it, Din?” Leia asked, grinning ear to ear. Dins head was cocked over to Luke and was absolutely rigid. 

“How did you kno-“ Din, for the first time, sounded confused. 

“You’ve been bringing home half these plants for the past week, and no one does protection on new terrain if they can help it. And Lando is showy,” Luke gestured to the massive hall they were in- the chandeliers, elaborate decor, string band, and all the guests who were dressed to the nines. 

Han walked up to Din and patted his back, “let’s go find that range, huh?” And with that they exited the main event on a quest to go kill fake birds. 

Din didn’t say much on their way to the range. He didn’t help much either. If they made the wrong turn, Din would follow along until they went back on the right course. The grounds were massive and they wandered into multiple gardens and athletic courts before they made it to the range. As if by premonition, Lando had kept an entire display of rifles by the shooting stands. 

“There shouldn’t be any ammunition in the-“ 

Luke opened the magazine with ease and checked the safety of a gun off the rack. “Safety’s on and there’s a full magazine in mine,”

“Me too,” Leia added. 

“Same here,” Han walked up to Din, “You wanna chuck first or shoot?” 

“Please set the rifles down, can any of you even-“

Han turned around and lifted his jacket and shirt up to reveal a pistol strapped to the small of his back. 

“I thought you weren’t bringing it!” Leia was exasperated. 

“Half the time I don’t tell you, ‘should know that princess. And she’s certified,” 

“What about Luke?” Din tried looking for an excuse. 

“I was in the military, I know how to shoot,” Luke’s tone softened towards the end. 

“I’ll chuck. Luke, you down to go first?” Luke nodded, and with that Han started to hurriedly walk towards the trap house, when Leia spoke up. 

“It’s automated, doofus!” She found a small tablet strapped to the back of the display and began to tap around. Han ran back and grabbed a rifle to hand to Din. “I’m not in the mood for a whole game, shoot until we miss then rotate?” Luke and Han nodded and went into their positions. Din was in too deep. “Alright, starting now. Luke can go first!” Leia pressed a button and walked over to the last slot.

Din stood between Luke and Han, and noticed that Luke sat his gun down for a moment and took off his own right hand. He took hand off. Luke, put it on the ground, grabbed the gun once more, and hit every single clay pigeon until his gun was empty. From the time his hand was off till he put it back on, Luke’s face was deadpan and his eyes… His eyes looked like they were staring down a man to his grave. 

Din was horrified, he was shocked. Din was feeling that tight warm feeling in his chest a bit more now, and Din missed the first three pigeons of his turn.


	12. Poetry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke and Din share a dance, and Din is left confused.

After Luke sat his gun down, his hand shook while he put his prosthetic down. Leia and Han didn’t seem to notice, since they were both cheering on his success. 

“Beefcake, hurry up,” Han shouted at Din, who was still in a daze.

“Beefcake?” Leia was flummoxed.

“Am I wrong?” 

“No, no,” Leia looked at Din, checking the validity of Han’s nickname.

Din gained consciousness and began to shoot his rounds, it was a bit easier than it looked since they seemed to have followed a pattern, but before he could finish Han interjected. 

“Stop, you missed the first three so you don’t get to shoot the last three,” Han shouted loud enough to be heard over gunshots, and when Din looked over to Leia she nodded in agreement. Han hit as many as Din did, and Leia missed one more. The only person better than Din was Luke.

“Okay, what next?” Leia put her rifle back on the stand and looked over to the men. Din didn’t react, and Luke seemed to be looking around the grounds. 

“Arm wrestle?” Han shrugged. 

“Sure,” Leia looked around for a table, “I think we need to go back inside though,” 

“Yes,” Din’s voice startled Leia, who hadn’t heard him creep up next to her. He needed to bring them inside where security was better, and he would not miss the opportunity. 

As they all headed back inside the mansion, Han and Leia led while Luke and Din straggled behind. Luke’s eyes were focused a little downward and his face was expressionless. He had been like that since the clay pigeons, and Din had noticed.

“Luke,” Din got a bit closer to him. Luke tilted his head towards Din yet kept his eyes locked, showing that he was listening, “Luke,” Din called once more, which was enough for him to look at Din. 

“Hm?” Luke's blue eyes were wide open and clearly ripped from deep thought.

“You were zoning out there,”

“Oh,” Luke spoke softly, seeming to not notice himself.

“Do you want to-”

“Leia! How much further?” Luke jogged up ahead and Din let out a sigh. It was a bit of a personal question, especially for his client/nanny, so Din tried to not take offense. 

When they finally made it to the mansion, there was quite the commotion. The four of them all perked up until Han was able to spot the cause of it all. 

“I think they’re starting a dance,” Han shifted on his feet a bit, trying to see through the large doorways and to the dance hall.

“What is this, high school?” Leia didn’t believe him.

“No, no I think that they’re actually dancing. Like ballroom stuff.” Han grabbed Leia’s wrist and led the two through the emerging crowd to prove his point. Din followed suit and Luke joined when he realized it was either join or be left alone. When Han made it close enough to the front for Leia to see he finally stopped. He was right, the small orchestra had begun to play “La Valser di Mezzanotte”, a song that was often danced to in the style of a Viennese Waltz, and couples began to join on the dance floor. Leia stared at the scene with her eyes all lit up, and Han looked down to see his wife looking like a child at a fireworks show.

“You still remember those dance lessons?” Han recalled all the ballroom classes the two took together when Leia first got into politics and all the “charity galas” they attended that were just elderly couples finding an excuse to dress up and dance. Leia turned to Han and smiled. They adjusted how their hands were held, and walked onto the floor.

Din watched the two begin to dance among the other couples when he felt a tap on his shoulder. When he looked at who it was, Din saw a pair of blue eyes hidden behind a cat mask. Luke. 

“Do you know where Han and Leia are?” Luke looked around the moderately dense crowd. Din pointed to the dance floor where the couple were already fully enveloped. “Oh,” Luke let out a small sigh and both he and Din looked at the spinning couples for a few moments. Some looked like they were professional, but most seemed like they knew the basics and just wanted some fun. More people began to join in, but Din was still able to spot Leia in the crowd. “Have you ever danced before? Like this, I mean,” Luke broke their silence first. 

“No, I don’t normally dance. Even casually,” Din took a step to the side away from Luke and veered his neck to the side, it became more and more difficult to spot his client as the music progressed. 

They returned to simply watching, Din trying his best to look at Leia and Luke trying his best to stay next to him. Neither of them would say it, but they both had their own questions to ask. Are you feeling better from last week? Was shooting a gun hard for you? Are you okay now? No. The more accurate question would be: are you safe now? They both wanted to ask that, and yet both of them would have come up with some reason to avoid giving an answer. 

A person in a golden bolta mask and long dark red coat approached Luke. When they did, Din quickly darted his eyes over to him. The stranger swung their hand out with a bit of a flourish and when they did so Luke shifted his weight to his heels and pulled his chin back a bit. He did not seem to enjoy that.

“In the words of Farouq Jwaydeh, ‘and if the devil were to-’” Before the stranger could even finish, Luke felt a hand slip down his arm before he was tugged gently by his prosthetic hand just onto the edge of the dance floor. Luke looked at the being that took him and saw a silver and white mask that was shadowed by a three-point hat. 

“Din-”

“You looked uncomfortable, and I needed to find a way to watch Ms. Organa better,” Even though Din said he dragged Luke out to get a better vantage point, his eyes were still locked on him. 

“Well, I was,” Luke and Din looked at each other for a moment. Expecting the opposite to move first. Then an idea struck Luke, “Do you know how to dance?” 

“I’ve seen people dance like this before…” 

Luke chuckled, “Doing is a bit different than looking,” he placed Dins right hand under his shoulder blade, raised the hand he held, and then put his free hand on Dins shoulders. “‘Want me to push your cape back?” Luke noticed how Din’s cape dragged against his arms and made it awkward for him to hold his pose. Din nodded, and Luke pulled the cape back to reveal an incredibly constructed tuxedo. He stared at Dins ensemble for a moment, before Din spoke up.

“Luke?”

“Oh, uh, so this kind of dance works in a three count and not 4 or 8,”

“Do you need to sit down or get something to drink? You’ve been zoning out a-”

“No! I- I want to dance. And you should probably learn how to, too,” Luke fixed his posture, and Din mirrored. “So most of this is just big spins, you probably noticed that though, but we’re still going to start off slow. You’ll be leading but just do what I do and you should be fine,” Luke then took his first few steps at half the tempo of the music, counting the beat as they went. 

Din picked up quickly and after a couple measures he was able to glide along with his dance partner. 

“Great! Now I’m going to step back and you step forward, with the three count there’s a tiny step added to keep the beat, 1, 2, 3,” And as Luke finished the count he did exactly as he said, Din fumbled a bit and kept looking at their shoes, but that was to be expected. “Now the same but you go backwards, 1, 2, 3” Luke took a step forward, and Din lunged back which caused Luke to laugh.

“Sorry, I,” Din stammered.

“Don’t worry, you’re okay, forward again”

“I don’t want to step on your feet,”

“I’ll be okay. I trust you. Now back to the spinning,” Luke and Din then began on their arched course yet again, “Leia and Han are over there,” Luke tilted his head over to the couple across the floor, “to change direction, we’re going to take steps side to side and then do what we’re doing now, but in the opposite direction,” Luke looked back up at Din, who gave a nod, and they then changed direction. “Let’s catch up to tempo,”

“This isn’t the tempo?”

“No, this is half the speed the music is at,”

“Half?” Din looked around at the couples whirling past them, Luke was right.

“If you want to stick next to Leia, we need to match tempo,”

Din nodded, and with that they increased their speed. Despite the clumsy manner of the two, they were able to get close enough to Leia and Han for Din to be comfortable once more. The music suddenly stopped and everyone started clapping, and Din turned to Luke to understand what was going on. 

“They’re changing the song, I think they’re adding a singer,” Luke looked up at his silver companion. “La Complainte de la Butte” began to play and a man in a phantom mask sang a rendition similar to Rufus Wainwright’s rendition. “Let’s keep going,” 

The two continued to dance, and as the song progressed there became more space between them and the couple Din was supposed to watch. Neither of them said anything about that. Instead Luke pulled his waist up to Dins, and Din grip on Luke’s shoulder tightened. The only words that were said were simple direction changes told by Luke, but even in time the two relied less and less on verbal cues. 

Din felt… odd. Calm washed over him in a way that he only felt with his son, yet he couldn’t quite get his gut to relax. Ease and nerve seemed to be grappling with each other and no one was winning. “How are you doing?” Dins chest constricted while he forced the question out of himself. Luke took a moment to reply.

“Better,”

Din nodded. He didn’t know what to say next, but kept going anyway. “Does Leia know you don’t like guns?” 

Luke shook his head and let out a sigh. 

“Do you think you’ll tell her?” Din saw Lukes lips tighten a fraction. 

“She’s caring enough already. Letting her know would just make her worry more, and she knows I struggle with… similar things,” Luke's grip with Dins hand softened a bit. “Thank you for making this hand guide,” he gently stroked Din’s hand with his thumb, glad to be able to feel it.

“Of course,” Din didn’t even know about Luke’s lack of another hand until 10 minutes ago, so he had been quite aware of its existence. The music stopped once more, and the two pulled away slightly to clap as the singer took a deep bow. “The Dream Waltz” by Mike Strickland began to ring through the hall as people returned to their dancing. They spent the first minute in silence, gaining their flow that was lost during the song transition before Din spoke again. “What was that person saying to you? The one that asked you to dance?”

Luke's ears turned a bit pink and he let in a sharp inhale. “I think it was just some line from a poet..” 

“Do you know it?”

“Well, yes, but..” Luke looked up at his partner, who was leaning in close enough for him to catch just a glimpse of earth brown in his eyes. He let out a shaky exhale before collecting his thoughts. “And if the devil was to ever see you, he’d kiss your eyes and repent. Or something like that,” Luke turned his head away sheepishly and tried to focus on moving them back to Leia and Han. Din looked at Luke for what felt like a very long time.

“That’s beautiful,” Dins' words only added to how flustered Luke was, and if his hold on Luke’s back wasn’t so tight, Luke might have pulled away for a moment. “It fits,” He added in a low whisper- but a whisper was enough for Luke to hear. And the bedroom tone Din always seemed to use only made his heart race faster and faster. 

They continued to dance in silence, Luke had to calm down before he spoke again, but the music filled the void. It took two songs for either to speak again.

“Leia’s on the move,” Dins' grip on Luke's hand and back lightened drastically. “Her and Han are walking out with Calrissian.” 

Luke whipped his head around and saw the back of their heads bob towards an exit. “I need to talk to him too,” they both let go of the other and hurried after Lando. “Leia! Han!” Luke called once they were in earshot. Leia, Han, and Lando all turned around to see Luke and Din a few yards away. 

“Luke!” Lando called out, when the two met he pulled him in for a strong hug before pulling back. “All three skywalkers, aren’t I lucky,” 

“You sure are, now back to-” Leia interjected.

“How about we talk about that over drinks, hm?” Lando had his arm wrapped around Luke and patted Han’s shoulder.

“Sure,” Han responded, despite the current state of their relationship, he knew that Lando had an extensive and legendary collection of any kind of spirit of any degree of legality. 

Leia gave Han a quick glare before smiling and nodding back at Lando. “Sounds lovely.” 

The four of them chatted as they made their way over to a private room, Din maintaining a respectable distance of a few yards as they walked. Lando pointed to a door that they all entered through, and once Din made it to the threshold he finally stopped. 

“Would you prefer if I stayed out in the hall or in the room, sir?” 

“Hall, please.” 

Din nodded and closed the door behind them. Right before they shut Luke turned around at the last moment and had a confused look on his face- he thought Din would have been joining them. Once the doors were closed, Din stood off to the side with his hands clasped in front of him and let out a sigh. 

What had just happened? He glanced at his watch, half an hour passed of him dancing around and not paying attention to his mark. That had never happened before. Leia was fine, but what if someone had approached her and Han while he wasn’t looking and made a threat? Or she drank some champagne a waitress offered and he didn’t know? Ideas spun through his head, until Din took off his hat and rubbed his hand through his hair. 

He wouldn’t let how he felt for Luke get in the way of work. Din didn’t know how he felt, but it was distracting nonetheless. It was fine until then. He had talked with him, been alone in a room together, even talked about him to friends and could still focus on and prioritize work. The only person who had caused that level of distraction before was Grogu, and that ended with him becoming his son. 

Did he want Luke to be his son? No, that was ridiculous. What did he want to do? Din thought for a moment. It wasn’t that, but Din did want some kind of dynamic between them. If he could find out what he wanted to do with Luke, then he could either categorize his feelings or try to do those things, and then move on and get it out of his system. So he began to think. 

Look at his face more. Dance again. Listen to him talk about his life. Find out more about his time in the air force. Relax with him. Eat Chinese food together. Go to the park with Grogu and him on a sunny day. Talk with him more. Hold his hand again. Dance again. 

Dancing and talking seemed to come up the most, so next was asking the question of why those two exactly. 

Because… well. 

That was the first time that he had touched someone besides Grogu. That was the first time in a long time that someone gripped his hand and looked him in the eyes. He was just touch starved. 

And for the conversation: Din knew nothing outside of Luke’s resume, and he seemed interesting. Luke also took care of his child and knowing more about him would be helpful. 

In review: Din only acted like that because he had been touch starved and wanted to know more about his employee. Nothing more. Nothing more...


	13. Carride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia, Han, and Luke flee from trouble.
> 
> a shorter chapter than the more recent ones.

Din waited outside the room for well over an hour. In this massive window of time, he began to fill out his report of the night and tried to make the dancing he did with Luke sound as plain as possible. Ahsoka called, saying that Grogu had a nightmare but they talked about it, did some meditation, and that Grogu would be sleeping in Dins bed when he got home. She put Grogu on the phone for a bit so that Din could tell him that he loved him, would come home, and that he was safe. 

Before Grogu was officially Din’s son, Ahsoka taught Grogu many coping skills that the child still used, most rooted in meditation and mindfulness. Din didn’t believe her at first, until Grogu started getting over stimulated when they were at a diner while discussing paperwork. Ahsoka simply helped Grogu get outside, and from the window Din looked at a grown woman and a toddler have a very deep-looking discussion before getting into lotus position on the sidewalk. When they returned, they moved to a more quiet booth and Grogu did much better. After that, Din did whatever Ahsoka said and had full faith in her. 

Once Din finished as much work as he could, he leaned against the wall and began to zone out. Similar to Grogu, he often found himself needing moments to recharge, and situations where he did door duty in an empty hall were some of the very few instances where Din could do so. He didn’t think about Luke, he didn’t think about Leia, and he didn’t think about anything except watching the hall and relaxing. It was nice, and definitely needed. 

A loud crash could be heard within the room followed by some laughter. Leia was the first one to bust through the doors and stumbled out a bit. Han and Luke followed out, more calm than her, and were trying to hide their laughs. 

“I’d first like to say that we’re sorry, but Han broke Lando’s fancy statue,” Leia hushed at Han who was letting out a belly laugh. 

Din poked his head back into the room they just left- it was one of Lando’s more decorated studies that had an entire cabinet full of spirits. He lifted a finger towards them to let them know to stay there for a moment, and entered the room. 

It wasn’t as trashed as he thought it would be, glasses covered the main desk, and on the opposite side he saw Lando passed out in a large leather chair. As Leia said, there was a small marble modernist statue that was clearly broken with a chunk of marble by the side of it. He checked his vitals and breathing, and judging by the amount of liquor that was missing, Lando wouldn’t be having any alcohol poisoning. Din gently carried him over to the much more comfortable fainting couch and positioned Lando so that if he did throw up he wouldn’t choke on his vomit. After tidying up the room a bit, writing a note explaining what had happened, and leaving a glass of water for his client, Din felt like he had done enough and returned to the trio. 

“How much can you lift?” Han blurted as he leaned against his wife, the door was wide open so Din could check on Leia as needed but didn’t think that he would be watched in return. When Din did carry Lando over to the couch, he did so with such ease that it looked as though the grown man was a child in his arms.

Din shrugged, “enough”. Working out was quite literally part of the job, to the point where his company gave every employee a full-package gym membership. “What do you plan to do next?” Din leaned over to Leia, who had a sleepy smile on her face.

“Go home, I don’t want to be here when Lando wakes up and sees we broke his baby,” Leia’s comment caused Han to snicker and she playfully hit his shoulder. Lando must have talked their ears off about that statue. 

“Have you all been drinking?” Dins' question caused all of them to nod or give thumbs up. “I’ll drive you all home then.”

“Leia, you’re gonna want him to take your car. Han’s falcon is like a lamborghini compared to his,” Luke glanced over to Din, knowing full well what his clunker of a car looked like.

“That’s because the millennium falcon is like a lamborghini,” Han grumbled. In 2000 he had bought a 1966 Chrysler Falcon, which he called his “millenium falcon” and repaired on his own. It was his pride and joy but Leia didn’t allow him to drive it for more than 100 miles at a time in fear of it breaking down. 

When they got to the valet, Leia handed the keys over to Din and her and Han piled into the back. Luke was about to join them when she stared him down and pointed to the shotgun seat. He seemed both annoyed and embarrassed by his sister. 

“What’s your address, ma’am?” Din adjusted the mirrors and seat while Leia grumbled her response. Most of the drive was just Leia and Han talking, and when they stopped at a red light Din looked over to Luke who was oddly silent. He was curled up and sleeping, with his long lashes and still face slightly aglow from the streetlamps. 

“‘Light’s green,” Han’s voice snapped Din back to the road ahead of him and continued to drive. 

After a while, Din parked in front of a high end townhouse and got out to open the doors for the trio. “We’re here,” He told the couple in the back. Leia and Han climbed out and Leia stretched her arms with a big groan. Din opened the door to shotgun, “Luke,” He called. Luke slowly woke up and slipped his Gnaga mask off and let out a small yawn. “We’re at Leia’s house.” Luke froze. 

“Can you drop me off at my place?” Luke's sleepy soft voice made Dins stomach flutter. 

“He likes to sleep in his own bed whenever he can,” Leia called from the stoop of her house. Before Din could reply with his answer, the couple were already in their home with the door closed. He was going to drop Luke off at his place.


	14. He Is Held

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find out what happened when Din dropped Luke off after the party.

Luke woke up the next morning in his bed feeling like utter shit. He couldn’t remember how he got there, and as Luke racked his brain for answers the image of Dins eyes looking down on him while they danced pierced through his memory. Luke let out a groan of embarrassment and rolled over. He unlocked his phone to text Din an apology. It seemed as though his boss had beaten him to the punch. Luke opened the text Din sent and read it.

“Leia and Han made it home safe. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable last night. -Din Djarin”

Luke thought for a moment, thinking about how personal to be, before texting back: “ur okay the dancing was nice”. As soon as he hit send, Luke felt regret. He couldn’t help but to think that any other reply would have been better than what he just wrote. Din replied just as quickly.

“Even when I dropped you off?” 

Luke was confused. “I don’t remember anything past when Lando started drinking with us” 

Din didn’t know how to respond. He felt like it was his duty to tell Luke, but it was so embarrassing. Din thought for a moment, he needed to confirm it, “So you don’t remember what happened when I dropped you off?”

“No?”

Din buried his face in his hands, Grogu looked curiously at his dad while he was coloring during his lunch. “I’m okay, kid,” Din assured his son. Grogu nodded and continued on his masterpiece.

Luke and Din did nothing more than talk that night, yet even that was for him. Luke was very sleepy, and so Din helped him up the stairs to his loft. When they got there, Luke planted himself on the floor in his living room and leaned against his coffee table. Din saw it as his time to leave, and began to head out the door. 

“Wait,” Luke called out. Din turned around and saw Luke pat a spot across from him- also on the floor. “Sit,”

Din once again did as he was told, and knelt down next to him. 

“Can you take your mask off now?” Luke’s comment made Din realize he was still wearing his cape, hat, and mask.

“Uh, sure,” Din removed the cape and hat first, feeling Luke’s eyes on him, and then untied the ribbon that held his mask in place. 

When Luke saw Din’s face, his eyes widened. “You’re beautiful,” he said breathlessly. Luke tried to cup his hand on Din’s cheek like how he did for anyone he cared about, yet as he reached out Din shifted back slightly. Luke froze, thinking it was a rejection until Din took a moment and leaned in. Both were more cautious this time since Din was fighting back every urge in his body to run or attack. 

When Luke finally touched him, Din’s eyes were wide open, like he was surprised that he even let it happen. It had been so long. It had been so long since he was touched with such care. It had been so long since he heard words like that. His eyes started to get a bit glassy before he squeezed them shut and leaned into Luke’s palm with the weight of his head. He didn’t want to cry, yet he wasn’t even aware that he was about to. 

Luke scooted in a little bit, realizing that they may just stay there like that for a moment, and when he did Din gingerly placed his hand on Luke's wrist and held his other hand. The cold metal of Luke’s prosthetic helped Din ground himself, and as he let out a big, heavy sigh that felt like it took ages to build, Luke saw a tear glisten down Din’s cheek. Luke brushed it away with his thumb and began to stroke Dins cheek. 

“Thank you,” Din whispered softly. 

Luke shifted himself onto his knees and kissed Dins forehead. His ache was clear, and all Luke could do was comfort him. Treat him with tenderness he must not have known for years. Care that hadn’t been shown for just as long. When Luke sat back down on his knees, Dins eyes were wide open and staring into his.

He wanted to kiss him. 

Din pulled his head off of Lukes palm “I… I need to go home,” He was his boss, and kissing someone who was drunk was never a good idea. Even in the corner of his eyes Din could see Lukes fingertips reaching back out, but he quickly let go of Luke’s other hand before anything else could happen. 

Din quickly and quietly left Luke’s loft, and on the ride back home couldn’t help but feel like a fool. A simple touch drove him to tears, and the idea of even kissing a drunk person was wrong. When he finally made it back to his apartment, Ahsoka was asleep on the couch with her limbs mangled everywhere. Grogu was in his bed like she said, fast asleep with his tiny head poking out of the sheets. Din changed quietly and slipped into bed, his son felt the sheets move and pulled himself onto his father. Din held Grogu close and stroked his hair as he slept, thinking about the night.


	15. Wounded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Din can't seem to face Luke.
> 
> TW: blood, injury

TW: BLOOD, INJURY

“What happened?” Luke texted back.

“We just talked, you touched my face at one point and kissed my head” Din was very hesitant with how to phrase how it all happened, wanting to be honest but save at least an ounce of dignity.

Luke didn’t reply back, instead he called up Leia shouting because if he touched Dins face that must have meant he had seen it. Summoning every ounce of focus, Luke could only remember a very blurred and fragmented story of the previous night- sitting on the floor, feeling a hot tear roll down his hand, the scent of Dins conditioner, and his back rushing out the door. 

Apparently Din must have come to the realization that all the arbory in his apartment was silly looking, since when Luke came back from his weekend Din greeted him through a bushel of flowers that he said he would be delivering to a friend who was willing to take them off his hands. It would be a slow process, but as the days progressed the only plants left were going to be the same flowers that adorned the dance hall in Lando’s home. 

Since Grogu would begin kindergarten in the fall, Luke had been spending most of their time at various museums, reading books, watching PBS, and at play dates with Ben to help with socialization. It was slightly difficult to plan such outings, given how that week Din requested Luke start and end the day hours later than usual and places for children were not open that late. That day was no different with an excursion to a botanical garden, and Grogu was in bed when Din came home. Luke was in the kitchen like usual, when Din came hobbling in with his motorcycle gear on and gripping his arm, going as quickly as possible to the bathroom. Luke knew better than to follow. 

From where he sat, Luke could hear the gush of water from the kitchen sink until it trickled to a stop. “How’s the kid?” Luke heard Din call through the bathroom door.

“In bed, we went to a garden today and he’s pretty tired from that.” 

“Okay, thank you. Have a nice night,” Din was quick to reply 

“...you too, Din,” Luke hated to leave knowing Din was clearly busted up, but the last time he offered help Din did not take kindly to it. So his exit was slow, just in case by some miracle Din asked for help. He did not. 

The next day, while Din was shuttling a bush out of his home Luke tried to sweep a leaf off the top of his head but instead Din took a step back. Between that interaction and Din coming home in his motorcycle helmet regardless of if he took his bike to work, Luke realized that Din was hiding his face on purpose.Yet when he came home, Din always asked about Grogu, then told Luke to have a good night. 

When Din came home after a few days of this routine, Luke's shoes stuck to the floor a bit on his way out. When he looked down, there were little drops of drying blood. It wasn’t a pleasant experience for him to wipe up his boss’s blood and just hope that he was okay, but it was all he knew he would be allowed to do. “Next time,” Luke thought, “next time I’ll help”. He pursed his lips at the amount of confrontation that would require and hurried home. 

The next time an instance like that would occur, Luke would in fact help even if he promised himself to or not. The following day that Din came home, he didn’t even make it to the hall before slamming his body against a wall and sliding down. He didn’t get back up. Din simply stayed crumpled up with red streaks on the wall showcasing the memory of his fall. Luke had to register for a second that Din wasn’t trying to run before leaping out of his chair to his side. 

Din hurled his hand onto Lukes when it gripped his motorcycle helmet but Luke looked at his gnarled knuckles and back up to the visor between them. “I’m helping you.” Dins' tiny protest was a sigh and another grab but his grip was so light that it didn’t impede Luke for a moment. 

When Luke removed the helmet, Din jerked his head away from Lukes gaze and looked at the floor. His hair was all ruffled up and pressed down and Luke could catch a glimpse of a busted lip and an old black eye. 

“I’m getting the first aid kit, can you take your jacket off while I’m gone?” Luke spoke to Din like he was a child on account of his stubbornness and didn’t stand up until Din began to slowly pull on the zipper of his kevlar shell. When he returned from the bathroom with the kit, Din was lying face up on the floor, hand on his side and eyes squeezed shut. He had on a black button up that he had undone with a white shirt underneath. Luke knelt down beside him on his injured side and Din slid his hand to the hem of the shirt and lifted up. There was a shallow yet irritated and bruised cut that traced along his bottom rib. Luke quietly began to disinfect and bandage the wound and tried his best to keep his eyes off the rest of Dins torso (that also seemed to be speckled in aging bruises). 

“I’m so-” 

“Don’t, pease,” Luke had spent the past few days trying to do this. Seeing someone in pain, forcing themselves away from others, hiding injury, it crushed Luke. “It’s not something to be sorry for,” Luke pulled the shirt back down and touched the torn and bloody portion that rested over the bandage- the blood was dry. 

He then brought his attention to Dins face, the cut on his lip seemed to have opened up again and the black eye only needed time to heal. Luke rummaged around in the first aid kit for another swab and alcohol wipe while Din tried to lean up. Instead the man let out a soft and low moan. Luke didn’t even need to look when he placed his fingertips on Dins chest and pressed him back down. Din sighed in defeat and watched as Luke tore open some alcohol swabs with his teeth. Din winced at the antiseptic on his flesh and Luke lifted his hand back up. 

“No, no it’s okay,” Din closed his eyes and braced for the next sting. 

“I’ll try to be more delicate,” Luke closed in on Dins face and the feeling of his breath on Dins skin caused Din to adjust his back on the floor. As Luke worked, his weight shifted from the side of Din to over him, and transitioned to straddling Din as the waist with his elbows on the ground beside his head. Every time Luke turned his head to grab something from the kit he unknowingly brushed Din’s face with his hair but Din didn’t seem to care. Luke's focus on Din’s lips, on the injury, let Din shamelessly look at those long lashes and iced eyes. 

When Luke finished applying the neosporin with his finger he quickly dismounted Din and began to collect the scraps. “Is there anywhere else I should know about?” 

Din thought for a moment, “uh, no.” 

Luke got up, threw away the trash, and ran the water at the kitchen sink until it steamed. He got a tea towel damp in it, wringed it out, and headed back over to Din who had managed to transition into the fetal position. “You can’t get up, can you?” Luke didn’t intend for the question to be coy, but the tone slipped out anyway. 

“..no. I can’t.” 

Luke put Dins arm around his shoulder and his spare hand that clutched the hot rag found its place over Dins side. When they both settled enough Luke lifted Din up and helped him to his bedroom. For the short walk there Din whimpered with every step and when he finally sat upright in his bed Luke helped him take off his button up. 

“”Do you want to sleep in that?” Luke gestured to the bloody and torn shirt he wore. Din shook his head, a bit too ashamed to say. So Luke rummaged through Dins dresser, pulled out a sleep shirt, and held it out to Din. The act of turning to grab the shirt made Dins brows knit and Luke sat the shirt down by his side. “I’m gonna help you,”

Din opened his mouth to protest but Luke had already lifted his shirt up over his eyes. Luke stopped mid-reach for the clean shirt when he saw how bruised Dins right shoulder was. 

“I didn’t say anything because I relocated it before I came home, so it’s fine now,” Dins' words didn’t seem to bring any comfort to Luke on account of his slack jaw. Din prepared for some reply but instead Luke just put his shirt on for him. Din only allowed Lukes help out of desperation and they weren’t at the level of trust or security for Luke to give him an earful he fully deserved. When Luke finished he squatted down to eye level with Din. 

“Grogu deserves a dad who’ll stay. You deserve to stay, and you can’t do that if you keep on like this,” Luke didn’t seem to reprimand, in fact his eyes looked sad as he said those words. “Please, take care,” Luke looked at Dins knee, wanting to place his hand there. Wanting to place his hands anywhere on Din at that moment. But instead he stood back up and sagged his shoulders. “Good night, Din,” 

Luke hadn’t fully turned his head when he felt a flimsy tug at the sleeve of his shirt. He looked back to face Din who seemed just as surprised as he did- only leagues more tired. “Can.” Din pursed his lips, unsure of how to say his want “Can you… stay?”


	16. Glossamer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Din and Luke share a light and delicate moment

Din felt uncontrollably hot, like he would break out into a visible sweat in seconds. The only thought in his head was “make it make sense, give him a reason,” Din added post haste “If I get worse I don’t want to drive to the hospital or call an ambulance.” Lukes face changed in a way that Din couldn’t quite understand, but his addition seemed to be enough. 

“Yes, uh yeah. I’ll stay- if you want me to,” Luke shifted his feet. “Can I-” Luke gestured to his clothes.

“Yeah, you can wear mine.” Din finished his statement for him and Luke shuffled back over to the dresser. He pulled out a sleep shirt and a pair of sweatpants before turning back to Din. 

“Do you want a pair too?” Luke lifted up the pair in his hands. Din nodded, and Luke pulled out a pair of old flannel pajama bottoms and laid them beside Din. “I’m gonna go change in the bathroom. My tooth brush from last time is still in there anyways.”

With that Din was left alone in his room and let the tension in his shoulders melt away. He picked up the pair of sweatpants and held them to his face as he tried to grasp at the idea that Luke would be spending the night while he was there too. Once he had his little moment, Din began to undo his pants and slowly peeled them off him, flecks of dried blood dancing through the air as he did so. He tried to not think about Luke as he did so, succeeding mostly, and as he worked the pants off his ankles Din realized that he hadn’t cleaned up the guest room since Ahsoka's short stay. Dins awkward fumble of putting his pajama bottoms on finished right as Luke poked his head through the door. 

“I should tell you I haven’t tidied up the spare room since Ahsoka left,” Din felt a bit guilty over the state of his home.

“Ahsoka?” Luke clearly tried to play off a bit of discomfort, and Din realized that Luke had no clue about who he was talking about.

“She’s a friend of mine. Just that. She helped me adopt Grogu and now she lives in a van but by choice and she-” Din cut himself off as he started to slide down a slippery slope of rambling. He took a deep breath and calmly explained, “I haven’t changed the sheets or anything since she left.” 

Luke walked up to the side of Dins bed and sat down. He took off his prosthetic hand and sat it by his side. “I planned on staying in here to watch you,” Luke furrowed his brow as they both felt the creepish undertone of that statement. “Well, not like that. Actually, a bit like that I guess.”

Din let out a wheezy huff of air as a laugh and slowly laid down in bed. The whole time he either tried to hide a groan or let one out. He laid there for a moment before letting a confession slip his lips, “My new client, he isn’t that well liked by the public. I don’t even like him that much- but I try to not let that get in the way. And whenever I have to escort him in a public area there’s always people there and…” Din subconsciously touched his bruised face. Luke leaned against the bed and held his hand. He swallowed, “that’s why I’m like this. It’s okay though, the pay is… really good,” Din chuckled to himself before cutting it short and holding his side. 

Luke lifted Dins hand and studied the bruises on it before gently kissing it, “I hope you get better,” Din felt another wave of heat blaze through himself and contemplated if Luke did that like Din was another injured child or if it was something more. 

“Thank you, Luke,” Din wanted to reach out to Luke desperately, it was written all over his face and he did not hide that. Luke either didn’t notice, or did and feigned ignorance as he rested his other arm on the bed and rested his face in the crook of his elbow. 

They looked at each other, teasing ideas in their own minds, when Luke pulled his chin upwards, “go to sleep, you look exhausted.” His words felt like when he caressed Dins face, and the memory of that made Din raise his eyebrows in a tinge of ache. 

“Alright, do you want a blanket?” Din adjusted himself in his bed.

“No thank you, Din. I’m fine,” Luke spoke softly. Din nodded and in that moment neither could tell who tightened their grip up on their hands, because as if by instinct they both did. They hadn’t turned any lights on since entering the room- the street lamps and passing car lights illuminated the room well enough for the middle of the night- so when they both rested their eyes there wasn’t any shift or transition. The need for one caused Luke to reveal a confession as well. “I would’ve stayed even if you didn’t ask.”

Din’s grip on Luke's hand didn’t ease. He quietly turned to face the other way as he let himself have a moment of blushing confusion.


	17. Grapefruit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after, Grogu gets Din to extend one of their morning rituals to Luke.

Din woke up before his alarm went off, and right as he reached for his phone he felt something around his wrist. A glance over made Din realize that his nanny was currently holding his wrist at the pulse point in his sleep. The man did not know what to do, and that uncertainty caused a tight pressure in his chest to build, making him sensitive to the feeling of the blood pushing through his body with every heartbeat until Din broke his gaze away to the wall opposite of him. He would simply wait it out, but as Din gained more awareness he noticed how crisp the air in the room actually was, and heard the curious coo of his son in the hall. 

It was the sound of a tiny screech that made Luke lift his head up- he had spent the past few moments in half-consciousness while trying to formulate why his neck felt so awful. When he opened his eyes Din was above him with Grogu on his lap, dancing to a song with R2. His neck had probably been aching from the partially upright position he was sleeping in, and rolled it around a bit to see if he could bring himself any comfort.

“I’m sorry, did Grogu wake you up?” Dins messy hair and calmed expression made Luke take a moment before responding. 

“Oh, no. I’m just-” As Luke was about to blame light sleeping (which was a partial lie) he noticed a comforter wrapped around his shoulders that wasn’t there when he nodded off. “-an early riser.” Luke adjusted his fib. He thought to reach the sheet when he remembered that he fell asleep while taking Din’s pulse and was still holding on to him. Luke didn’t intend to look up to Din for permission to let go, yet seemed to do so anyway. Din gave a little nod and Luke released his grip. 

“Your hand is over there, and you have enough time to get ready at your home. I’ll make you some breakfast while you’re out,” Din pointed to a spot near Lukes feet where a metallic hand laid, and returned his attention to the little dance move Grogu was showing him.

His home. Yes, Luke needed to go back there and Din still had to go to work. The thought of either of them leaving the room was a sudden idea that brought down him just a hair. Before Luke could get up, Din hoisted his son on top of his shoulders, got out of bed, and ducked under the threshold of his door on the way to drop Grogu off in the bathroom. Luke put his hand back on, hoping it would have enough battery to make it to its next charge, and went to his loft in a dream-like state. He was still trying to piece together the reality of that night, trying to separate desperate dreams from reality. 

When Luke came back to Din’s apartment, he was hit with a scent of sweet citrus. Din had baked grapefruit with brown sugar on top for all three of them, and brewed iced coffee in a pitcher for the adults (who unlike Grogu, was allowed to drink it). Before Luke could comment on his arrival, Din looked up from the kitchen table and had a reactionary smile. Luke smiled back without thinking and gave a small wave. Din was cutting up Grogu’s half of fruit with a grapefruit spoon after Grogu had failed terribly himself, and when Luke was noticed by Grogu he squealed and shook his tiny fists in the air out of joy. 

“Hi, Grogu,” Luke gave a small wave before sitting down in the only chair left empty and began to work on his grapefruit. It was oddly silent, something Luke didn’t expect from such a rowdy child or the parent of one, but neither Grogu nor Din seemed off put by it. Din handed back the newly spliced grapefruit back to Grogu and the little kid wolfed it down. Luke filled his glass with iced coffee and noticed that Din was practically done with his light breakfast, and now was slowly scraping the sides of the rind with his spoon and taking small sips from his almost empty glass. It was almost like he was taking his time. 

When Din could no longer drink from an empty cup or eat citrus rind, he stood up, collected his dishes and silverware, placed them in the empty dishwasher, then headed to his room. Luke looked up in between bites to see if he was pained by using his shoulder, and for other reasons. His condition seemed to be better, but Din avoided any large movements or twisting of his torso. Luke was half way through his meal when Din entered once more wearing his leather and kevlar biker jacket over a sportcoat, tie and shoes. Din gave Grogu a small peck on the forehead and picked up his empty plate to put in the dishwasher when the kid pounded his hand on the table once, an attention grabber that Grogu would use from time to time. 

“Yeah, kid?” Din looked back at his son who had a scrunched up face. 

“Luke?” Grogu signed. Din put Grogu’s dishes away and faced him better. 

“What about Luke?” Din signed back. Luke looked at the two, and despite knowing about as much ASL as the child, was leagues more lost.

“Kiss him too?” Grogu was confused on why he was the only one that got- what he considered- a regular parting kiss his dad would do in the morning. Din looked to Luke, who looked to Grogu, who looked at his dad with a stubborn little face. In moments like this, Grogu would either throw a fit or pester and delay his dad until he got an answer he liked. And Din did not have time for those sort of antics after a longer breakfast than normal. So, he sheepishly walked over to Luke. 

“Is it okay if I kiss your forehead, Luke?” Din was the type of parent to teach their kids consent through example, and so he intended this small question a formality. Possibly hoping Luke would say no so he wouldn’t have to do it, but his little stunt did not work like that. Luke knew what the two were talking about, and had a premonition that it may lead to this, yet still managed to blush at the question.

“Sure.” Luke replied in a teasing manner, Din squinted at Luke, jokingly upset that he followed his son's antics. Din rested his hand on the back of Luke’s chair and gave Luke a quick peck on the top of Luke's scalp. He smelled like the leather jacket he wore religiously, fresh laundry, and… Din seemed to be radiating heat that Luke didn’t notice last night. 

“Thank you,” Din spoke in a low hushed tone, Luke at first thought that it was an obligatory one after being allowed to kiss him, but when he looked up at Din's face it was apparent that it was for last night. 

“No problem,” Luke was just glad that Din didn’t push him away, that he was able to do something for once. 

On his exit, Din awkwardly blurted, “Have a nice day, you two.”

Luke smiled, “You too, Din.” 

Din stopped in his tracks and fumbled at the door handle. He turned his head over to Luke and gave a small nod then left.

**Author's Note:**

> Drink some water


End file.
